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A STUDY ON THE INCIDENCE OF SINGAPORE EAR AMONG THE RURAL POPULATION OF CHENNAI

Singapore ear or diffuse Otitis externa are common in tropical countries [1, 2 & 3]. Factors like excessive moisture in the external ear canal, local trauma and invasion by pathogens play an important role in the development of the infection [1, 4 & 5]. Our college is located in the coastal area of suburban Chennai with 72 villages around. A study was designed to analyse the incidence of Singapore ears in the rural population who use the lakes, ponds and wells for bathing. 132 patients with various ear complaints attending the ENT OPD were selected. History including bathing & ear cleaning habits were obtained. Separate swabs were taken from the infected and contra lateral ear and sent to the laboratory for culture & sensitivity studies. The patients were reviewed after 3 days. In our study 51.6% of isolates were pathogenic and unhealthy ear cleaning habits were observed in 61.4% of patients. Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the commonest [40%] organism isolated which showed a strong [100%] positive sensitivity pattern to Imipenem, Ceftazidine, Gentamycin, Amikacin, Cefotaxime, Cefaperazone and Carbenicillin. The incidence of ‘Singapore ears’ in our study is similar to that of the other studies. Water entry along with indiscriminate ear cleaning and infection by Pseudomonas aeruginosa were the major contributing factors. The strong positive sensitivity pattern shown by the Pseudomonas aeruginosa is of great importance to the clinicians dealing with multidrug resistant strains.