What is the treatment for ear discharge?

Some friends may find that their ears are leaking. This may be caused by excessive ear secretions. The secreted water should be in a viscous state and have a noticeable odor. There are many reasons for ear discharge, such as seborrheic otorrhea, purulent otorrhea, watery otorrhea, etc., so friends can go to the hospital for further testing first.

What causes water to flow from the ears?

Fatty otorrhea

Due to excessive secretion of the cerumen glands in the external auditory canal, the wax is mostly yellowish brown or light yellow, sticky and oily, generally without odor, commonly known as oily ears.

Purulent otorrhea

It is a manifestation of suppurative inflammation, common in acute and chronic suppurative otitis media, otitis externa, furunculosis, etc. In addition, rare cases of suppurative mumps, suppurative cervical lymphadenitis, etc. may also cause purulent otorrhea when the tube ruptures into the external auditory canal. If the pus is not large but has a foul odor, the possibility of cholesteatoma should be considered.

Bloody otorrhea

Most of them are related to trauma, and bullous tympanitis, ear trauma, and some otitis media may also be considered, but be alert to hemangioma or middle ear cancer. Especially in the case of middle ear cancer, if there is blood in the pus, the pus has a foul odor, or there is severe ear pain or headache, it is a bad sign. Suspicious tissues in the external auditory canal or middle ear should be taken for pathological examination to determine the diagnosis and treatment measures.

Watery otorrhea

It often occurs in craniocerebral trauma with skull base fracture and tympanic membrane rupture, with clear water-like liquid slowly flowing out of the external auditory canal, often mixed with blood. This is a characteristic of cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea, which requires special attention because it may cause meningitis.

Serous otorrhea

The pale yellow, transparent, thin liquid is mostly secretion from the serous glands of the middle ear mucosa or serum leaked from the blood vessels. It can be seen in the early aspiration fluid of secretory otitis media and the overflow after tympanostomy tube placement, or in the recovery period of otitis media. If the amount of liquid of this nature is large and it overflows continuously, it is mostly allergic otitis media.

What to do if the water in your ears has a bad smell

1. Inflammation is mainly treated with anti-inflammatory treatment, such as 3% hydrogen peroxide ear washing, 2.5% chloramphenicol ear drops or 0.3% ofloxacin ear drops for otolysis treatment. Acute cases still require systemic antibiotics

2. If it is caused by trauma, external ear lacerations should be sutured. If there is temporal bone fracture or cranial injury, the author should ask neurosurgery to cooperate in the treatment. If there is cerebrospinal fluid leakage, ear canal packing is not performed.

3. Otitis media of the edentulous type, cholesteatoma type, and middle ear cancer are mainly treated with surgery

4. In addition to antibacterial drugs, eczema infections should also be treated with antiallergic drugs, such as oral antihistamines

5. If the ear canal is blocked by a lump, it can be removed or softened by dripping 3% baking soda solution into the ear, and then flushing the ear canal after 3 days to drain it out.