Foreign Bodies in External Auditory Canals: Experience of 653 Cases Over 8 Years

Objective: to analyse the spectrum of presentation and management of foreign bodies in external auditory canal. study design: retrospective analysis of data. place and duration: district government hospital paretabad hyderabad (sindh) pakistan over a period of 8 years,i.e. from july 1999 to june 2007. methods: a pre designed proforma was used to collect the data regarding patients' demographics,frequency and type of foreign body,management and outcome. results: total 653 patients with foreign bodies in external auditory canals were dealt with over a period of about eight years. the age variance was from 1-65 years. most of the foreign bodies i.e. 163 (25%) were retrieved in the children up to two years of age. a wide variety of foreign bodies totally numbering 41 were retrieved from external auditory canals. stone/concretion were the single most frequently removed foreign body constituting 32.6%. jobson horne probe was the single most frequently used tools which was utilized in 37% of the cases to remove different types of foreign bodies. general anesthesia was employed in only 11.79% of the cases. operating loupe was used in 53.13% of the cases. morbidity occurred in 11% of the cases with tympanic membrane perforation occurring in 0.6% of the case. conclusion: different types of foreign bodies are prevalent in different parts of the world. similarly different methods of removal are adopted dictated by the nature,location and state of the foreign body at the particular instant.