耳かきによる鼓膜および内耳損傷の1例

抄録

When a 31-year-old man, lying on his left side, was cleaning his right ear with an earpick made of bamboo, his child touched the earpick by accident. In no time at all, he developed earache, tinnitus and hearing impairment. On the 6 th disease day pullsating otorrhea occurred. Otologic examination revealed severe sensori-neural hearing loss in the right ear with a prolonged rightward nystagmus. An antibiotic drug regimen coupled with blockage of the stellate ganglion brought about, in about one and a half months, an arrest of the otorrhea and recovery of hearing to a level of 30 dB on the average. The nystagmns also disappeared. A test for vestibular function (rotation test) demonstrated no residual abnormalities with no left-to-right differences.
Of great interest is the fact that the patient restored his hearing to a conversable level after sustaining an injury to the inner ear with a leak of perilymph and probable damage of hair cells of the cochlea. This favorable outcome is probably explained by the intactness of endolymph which facilitated return of function to hair cells with recovery of perilymph.