ENT Flashcards
What are the clinical features of otitis media?
- Ear pain
- Discharge
- Fever
How do you manage otitis media?
Conservative - watch and wait, monitor childs development
Medical - abx after 2-3 day delay, amoxicillin first line, erythromycin if allergy
Surgical - grommet insertion to correct Eustachian tube dysfunc
What are the complications of otitis media?
- Chronic otitis media and chronic ear discharge
- Cholesteatoma
- TM peforation
- Conductive hearing loss
- Infection spread intracranially - brain abscess
What is the management of chronic otitis media?
Cholesteatoma - surgery to remove and mastoidectomy
If no cholesteatoma found = repair perforation
What are the causes of pain in the ear?
- Otitis externa
- Otitis media
- Otitis interna
- TM perforation
- Haemotympanum
What is haemotympanum? What are the signs and sx?
Blood in the middle ear, often associated w temporal bone fracture.
Signs - conductive hearing loss, blood seen through TM
What are the risks of mastoid surgery?
- Facial nerve palsy
- Alt taste due to damage of chorda tympani
- CSF leak
- Tinnitus, vertigo and complete hearing loss in operated ear
What are the clinical features of otitis media w effusion?
- Conductive hearing loss
- Ear pain
- Can see effusion and fluid behind tympanic membrane
What are the ix of otitis media w effusion?
- Tympanogram - type B/flat tracing w normal canal vol
- Pure tone audiogram - conductive hearing loss
What is the management of otitis media w effusion?
- Conservative to see if spont resolution
- Grommets
What is a tympanogram?
Measure compliance of the TM in response to pressure changes in the middle ear. Can be performed at all ages.
Type A - normal, peak at 0
Type B - flat
Type C - peak earlier than 0, on the neg side of the chart
What is a pure tone audiogram?
Measures hearing sensitivity. Can be performed 4+.
The higher the line on the graph, the better the hearing.
Conductive - normal bone conduction and reduced air conduction
Sensorineural - reduced bone and air conduction
What are the different types of hearing loss and what are the results of tuning fork tests?
- Conductive, outer or middle ear pathology, bone louder than air and sound louder in bad ear
- Sensorineural, inner ear pathology, air louder than bone and sound loud in good ear
What are the causes of type B and type C tympanograms?
Type B - otitis media w effusion or perforation
Type C - eustachian tube dysfunction
How should sensorineural hearing loss be investigated?
With an MRI scan to exclude lesions along the pathway eg. acoustic neuroma/vestibular schwanoma
What are some causes of childhood hearing loss?
Congenital - infections eg. rubella, drug and alcohol use in pregnancy, genetic causes, preeclampsia, hypoxia at birth
Acquired -meningitis, perforated TM, otitis media, otosclerosis/Menieres disease, noise induced head injury
What is otosclerosis and what are the clinical features?
Autosomal dominant disease causing fusing of the ossicles and progressive hearing loss.
- Hearing loss
- Tinnitus
- Hearing improved in noisy surroundings
- FH
- Carhart’s notch on PTA = loss of bone conduction at 2000Hz
What is Schwartze sign?
Rare but pink hue to TM in otosclerosis
What are the ix into otosclerosis?
- Tympanogram - type A trace
- PTA - conductive hearing loss
What is the management on otosclerosis?
- Hearing aid
- Stapedectomy
What are some non vestibular causes of dizziness?
- Hypoglycaemia
- Postural hypotension/hypotension
- Dehydration
- Incontinence
- Cervical dizziness
- Visual disturbances
- Stress and fatigue
- Neuropathies eg. diabetic foot, less sensation in feet and feel unsteady and dizzy
- Aneurysm
- Arrythmia
- Heart failure and MI
- Medications
What are the vestibular causes of vertigo/dizziness?
Central - stroke, migraine, cancer, demyelination eg. MS, drugs
Peripheral - BPPV, Meniere’s, vestibular neuritis
What are the clinical features of BPPV?
Vertigo w head movements, lasts for a few seconds.
How do you diagnose and treat BPPV?
Diagnose - Dix Hallpike manoeuvre - torsional geotrophic nystagmus, recreates sx
Treat - Epley manoeuvre
What are the clinical features of Meniere’s disease?
- Vertigo
- Nausea and vomiting
- Tinnitus
- Aural fullness
- Sensorineural hearing loss, goes from fluctuating to permanent
What is the management of Meniere’s?
Medical - thiazide diuretics eg. bendrofluazide, betahistine, prochloperazine for acute attacks
Surgery - grommets, dex middle ear injection, vestibular destruction = inject gentamicin in middle ear, labrinthectomy
What are the clinical features of vestibular neuronitis?
- Severe vertigo lasting days
- nausea and vomiting
- General unsteadiness for weeks following the episode
- Horizontal nystagmus - HINTS exam
What is the management of vestibular neuronitis?
Vestibular sedatives during acute attacks and IV fluids if vomiting is severe enough
What is the prognosis of sudden onset sensorineural hearing loss?
Is an otological emergency
1/3 recover completely, 1/3 partially recover, 1/3 no recovery at all
What are the ix into sudden sensorineural hearing loss?
- Pure tone audiogram
- MRI scan to exclude lesion along central auditory pathway eg. acoustic neuroma
What is the management of sudden sensorinural hearing loss?
- Steroids - oral or injected into middle ear
- Anti virals
What is Weber’s test?
Tuning fork placed on patients forehead and pt is asked where they can hear the noise:
- Sensorineural - tone heard in good ear
- Conductive - tone heard in bad ear
What is Rinne test?
Tuning fork is placed on the pt mastoid and then just outside the ear:
+ve Rinnes = tuning fork louder in air, Sensorinueral (or not heard)
-ve Rinnes = tuning fork louder in bone, Conductive
What are the local causes of epitaxis?
- Idiopathic (85%)
- Trauma
- Iatrogenic
- Foreign body
- Inflam - rhinitis, polyps
- Neoplastic