gms | German Medical Science

Infants and young children frequently insert foreign bodies into the ear. It usually occurs in children between 2 and 7 years of age and during play.These can be classified as organic or inorganic.

I will present a case of young girls 2 years age who are admitted to hospital from emergency with otoragia. From medical history we notice: the otoragia appear suddenly in the time of sleep one day before, when children weak up and cry without any reason. The mother do not recognize any acute episode of acute viral infection of the upper respiratory tract or any trauma.

We perform general objective endocavitary ENT examination: at difficult otoscopy we see minimal otoragia and child was very uncooperative. After minutiae examination of external ear canal I can see a worm who move continuously into the internal half of the ear canal. After a repeated episode of suction, the blood was extracted and a live worm was extracted simultaneous.

Conclusion: Any suddenly otoragia associated with agitation in children must be suspected of a foreign body. Because all of this symptoms appear in the time of sleep we must have a high index of suspicion about animated foreign body especially in young children who do not speak and cannot explain nothing just crying.

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