Earaches Visualized
A common problem in children and adults, earache can cause intense pain, drainage from the canal, and sometimes hearing loss. What do these otoscopic views reveal?
Clinician Reviews. 2015 September;25(9):15
September 1, 2015 | Clinician Reviews
3. A 15-month-old boy was brought in with a two-day history of fever, irritability, and frequent tugging on his left ear. The week before, he had nasal congestion, cough, and rhinorrhea. On otoscopy, his left tympanic membrane (TM) appeared erythematous, cloudy, and bulging. The TM failed to move on pneumatic otoscopy.
Photo courtesy of William Clark, MD. Reprinted from The Color Atlas of Family Medicine. 2nd ed.
Diagnosis: Acute otitis media, which is characterized by middle-ear effusion in a patient with signs and symptoms of acute illness (eg, fever, irritability, otalgia).
For more information, see “Ear pain in baby.” J Fam Pract. 2013.
