If you notice any unusual signs in your body, seek medical assistance as soon as possible!
A middle-aged man in Kaohsiung recently experienced sudden hearing loss and was booked for a doctor’s examination. His right face, however, became paralyzed the night before the exam, and he began drooling excessively. During surgery, surgeons discovered a cotton swab head that had become lodged in his ear for an extended period of time, causing external otitis and nerve paralysis.
According to “Apple Daily News,” Yang Chuan Qian, director of the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at E-DA Hospital, stated that when the 50-year-old patient arrived for a health check, he said that he had been experiencing a decline in hearing for more than a year, as well as discomfort in his right neck. The patient’s external auditory canal was discovered to be packed with pink granulation tissue upon examination. Yang Chuan Qian was concerned that it could be malignant tissue, so he scheduled a biopsy.
However, the patient’s right ear became severely uncomfortable the day before the assessment, and his right face became paralyzed, forcing him to drool excessively. Emergency surgery was undertaken since it was suspected that he had suffered a stroke. Yang Chuan Qian discovered a 2cm-long object inside the patient’s granulation tissue during surgery, which turned out to be a cotton swab head. The patient was confused if he had attempted to clean his ear and had accidentally trapped the cotton swab head in his ear canal.
According to Yang Chuan Qian, the granulation tissue in the patient’s ear was caused by the cotton swab head being caught in there, creating external otitis and inducing granulation tissue growth. As a result, his hearing was impaired, and the inflammation in the mastoid bone beneath the middle ear chamber created discomfort in the patient’s right neck.
Long-term inflammation in the external auditory canal has infiltrated the seventh cranial nerve, leading to facial nerve paralysis, according to Yang Chuan Qian. The patient’s condition improved after treatment. Yang Chuan Qian warned everyone that, while many people clean their ears, earwax can kill bacteria, and if one is not careful when cleaning their ears, they may accidentally hurt their ear canal and acquire symptoms similar to the patients. If you have a foreign item in your ear that is causing pain and hearing loss, you should seek medical assistance as soon as possible.
