CHRONIC SUPPURATIVE OTITIS MEDIA COMPLICATIONS SCENARIO DURING COVID 19 PANDEMIC Authors

Abstract

Introduction: In December 2019, world health organisation (WHO) declared corona virus disease (COVID 19) led to disruption in routine and non-emergency medical facilities. This increased the morbidity risk associated with some of the preventable conditions, one of them being chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM). Methods: Retrospective data was collected between March’s 2019- 2021 in the department of ENT and head neck surgery, BRLSABVM medical college, Rajnandgaon, CG,.India.. All chronic otitis media patients with or without complications were included Results: In our study the number of complicated cases which were 30 patients out of the 402 patients, the rate comes out to be 7.4%. In this study, before the pandemic that is form march 2019 to march 2020 the percentage of complicated cases were found to be 7 (23.6%) and during the pandemic that is from April 2020- March 2021 it was 23(76.3 %) that shows increase in number of complications during pandemic. Most common age group involved was 21 to 40 years. The most common Extra cranial complication was mastoid abscess (36.6%), followed by facial nerve palsy (FNP) 20% The most common Intracranial complication was meningitis (16.6%) followed by brain abscess (6.6%) and extradural abscess (3.3%). Conclusion: In our study we could find that there was a change in CSOM behaviour in terms of complications in prepandemic and pandemic period. Study shows rise in complication rate from 7 cases during the prepandemic times to 23 cases during pandemic times. This shows the importance of timely intervention which should be available to treat common diseases like CSOM to avoid the possible complications and their sequelae.