Primary Care Otolaryngology

ENT EMERGENCIES

available balloons to stop the nosebleed. Patients who undergo anterior packing on one side may go home. However, if bilateral nasal packing is used or a posterior pack is placed, patients will need to be admitted to the hospital and carefully watched, because they can suffer from hypoventila- tion and oxygen desaturation. In general, the packing is left in place for three to five days and removed. During this time, prophylactic oral or par- enteral antibiotics should be administered to decrease risk of infectious complications. If the patient re-bleeds, the packing should be replaced, and arterial ligation, endoscopic cautery, or embolization can be consid- ered. As always, these patients should be worked up for bleeding disor- ders. A patient with a severe nosebleed can develop hypovolemia, or sig- nificant anemia, if fluid is being replaced. These conditions necessitate increased cardiac output, which can lead to ischemia or infarction of the heart itself. Necrotizing Otitis Externa “Malignant” otitis externa is an old name for what should more appropri- ately be called necrotizing otitis externa. This is a severe infection of the external auditory canal, usually caused by Pseudomonas organisms. The infection spreads to the temporal bone and, as such, is really an osteomy- elitis of the temporal bone. This can extend readily to the base of the skull and lead to fatal complications if it is not adequately treated. This disease occurs most commonly in older patients with diabetes, and can occur in AIDS patients. Any patient with otitis externa should be asked about the possibility of diabetes. It can be caused by traumatic instrumentation or irrigating wax from the ears of patients with diabetes. Patients with necro- tizing otitis externa present with deep ear pain, temporal headaches, puru- lent drainage and granulation tissue at the area of the bony cartilaginous junction in the external auditory canal and facial nerve followed by other cranial neuropathies in severe cases. To diagnose an actual infection in the bone (which is the sine qua non of this disease), a computed tomography (CT) scan of the bone, with bone windows, must be obtained. A technetium bone scan will also demon- strate a “hot spot,” but is too sensitive to discriminate between severe otitis externa and true osteomyelitis. The standard therapy is meticulous glucose control, aural hygiene, including frequent ear cleaning, systemic and topi- cal antipseudomonal antibiotics, and hyperbaric oxygen in severe cases that do not respond to standard care. Quinolones are the drugs of choice because they are active against Pseudomonas organisms.

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