Otitis media with effusion in children and its correlation with foreign body in the external auditory canal.

Otitis Media with Effusion (OME) is difined as the chronic accumulation of mucus within the middle ear and sometimes the mastoid air cell system. Significant hearing loss may go unnoticed and may result in improper development of speech and language. Foreign bodies in the external auditory canal of paediatric patients are commonly encountered in day-to-day practice. The purpose was to see if there is any relation between foreign bodies in ears and otitis media with effusion. A prospective study of consecutive cases was conducted between August 2005 and August 2007 at a teaching hospital. All children presenting with the history of a foreign body in the external auditory canal were included in this study. 50/74 that is 67.8% of the children in the study group had abnormal findings in the tympanogram whereas only 28/74 that is 37.8% children from the control group had abnormal findings in tympanogram. This study indicates that significant eustachian tube dysfunction to frank OME, causes irritation and/or earache in children which may compel them to put things into the ear. So children with an external auditory foreign body must be followed up in an ENT clinic. This may be an early opportunity to diagnose an underlying undetected OME and/or eustachian tube dysfunction in children, preventing the development of any complication from the undetected OME.