Preventing Swimmer’s Ear in Your Child
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Health Tip of the Week Acute otitis externa (AOE), also known as swimmer's ear, is an outer ear infection, usually caused by bacteria that multiply when water becomes trapped in the ear canal. Otitis externa infections are more common in warmer climates and in the summer months, when people have increased exposure to water. Other factors that may cause swimmer's ear include skin conditions that may contribute to debris in the ear canal, trauma from aggressive ear cleaning, trauma from wearing hearing aids, sweating, allergies and stress.
Common symptoms of AOE are inflammation, itching, a feeling of fullness, hearing loss and pain when tugging on the earlobe or chewing food.
Treatment for AOE includes analgesics to relieve pain and ear drops to clear up infections. Ear drops are highly effective because of the high local drug concentration in the ear canal.
Compared to topical therapy, oral antibiotics are too commonly used and do not achieve a high enough drug concentration to be effective against the major pathogens of AOE, which are able to resist them.
Jennifer M. Spellman, MSN, CRNP, CORLN, nurse practitioner in the Division of Otolaryngology (ENT) at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, shares her tips for preventing swimmer’s ear:
Contributed by: Jennifer M. Spellman, MSN, CRNP, CORLN
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