title: Chronic discharging ear in a child: are we missing something?
abstract: Chronic discharging ear, mostly due to middle or external ear infection, is one of the leading causes for seeking healthcare among the paediatric population in a developing country. However, a long-standing forgotten middle ear foreign body forms a rare cause for such presentation demanding a high index of suspicion from the clinicians. Most of them are iatrogenic or accidental, and are removed by conventional permeatal approach; need for tympanotomy is rarely documented in the recent literature. We report the first case where a large stone was introduced into the middle ear through a pre-existing tympanic membrane perforation by the child himself, and only the second documentation of removal of a middle ear foreign body by tympanotomy in a child.
authors.affiliation: Medical College and Hospital, Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head-Neck Surgery, 88, College Street, Kolkata, 700073, West Bengal, India. duttamainak@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Mainak
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dutta
authors.forename: Soumya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ghatak
authors.forename: Gautam
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Biswas
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D004423:Ear; D004432:Ear, Middle; D005547:Foreign Bodies / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans