Abstract
SummaryAim: To describe the bacterial and fungal organisms in otitis externa patients without other risk factors for fungal infections.Study designCross sectional cohort descriptive study.Materials and MethodsEar swabs were obtained from 362 patients aged 1 to 55 years old with clinically diagnosed otitis externa in Erzurum, Turkey, between January 2006 and April 2007, and cultured for aerobic and anaerobic bacteria and fungi, using EMB, 5% sheep's blood, chocolate agar, anaerobic blood agar plate, thioglycollate broth and sabaroud agar using standard microbiological technique to diagnose isolates.Results219 cultures were positive and a total of 267 isolates were obtained. Of the isolates, 68.16% (n: 182) were aerobic or facultative bacteria, 1.12 % (3) were anaerobic bacteria, 30.71 % (82) were fungi and 17.5 % (38) were polymicrobial infections.ConclusionFungal organisms especially Candida species may be isolated from ears of otitis externa patients without fungal infection risk factors such as ear self-cleaning, local antimicrobial, antifungal or corticosteroid drops or systemic antimicrobial or antifungal agents within the preceding week. Bacterial and fungal cultures may be recommended, and anti-fungal agents may be added, to treatment regimens in patients with otitis externa.
Highlights
Otitis externa is a generic term for inflammation of the external auditory meatus (EAM) skin, which includes the visible ear and the portion of the ear canal that leads up to the eardrum without extending to the middle ear
The polymicrobial nature of otitis externa in 17.35 % (n: 38) of the cases was reflected in this study
Fungal agents were found in 9.13 % (n: 20) of the cases as polymicrobial and in 21.58 % (n: 62) of the cases as solely cultured agents
Summary
Otitis externa is a generic term for inflammation of the external auditory meatus (EAM) skin, which includes the visible ear and the portion of the ear canal that leads up to the eardrum without extending to the middle ear. Infectious (bacterial or fungal) in etiology, the main symptoms include severe otalgia, purulent discharge and variable hypoacousia[1]. Previous reports have questioned whether fungal organisms identified on culture represent colonization or infectious agents[3,4,5,6,7]. Aspergillus species are the predominant organisms implicated in the etiology of otomycosis[7, 8]. Our study aimed to investigate the bacterial and fungal agents present in ear swabs of patients with otitis externa and an uneventful medical history
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