A Study of Complications, Sinonasal Predispositions and Microbiological Profile of Chronic Otitis Media

Keeping in view the changing flora of chronic otitis media (COM), geographical variability of its complications and differential prevalence of sinonasal predisposing diseases in these patients, we studied the microbiological profile along with the complications and sino-nasal diseases in patients with COM. It was a Cross-sectional study conducted during Nov 2017 to Dec 2019 in department of Otorhinolaryngology, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, AMU, Aligarh. The study included 200 cases of chronic suppurative otitis media, both Mucosal (safe) and Squamous (unsafe) type, out of which 111 (55.5%) were males and 89 (44.5%) were females. The overall prevalence of complications in patients with COM in our study was high at 6.5% with 61.54% complications being extracranial and 38.46% were intracranial. DNS was the most common sino-nasal disease found in 22.5% of patients followed by Inferior turbinate hypertrophy, Adenoid hypertrophy and polyp in 6.5%, 5.5% and 4% of participants respectively. A culture positive result was found in 84.5% of the samples with 55.5% samples being monomicrobial and 29.0% being polymicrobial. COM like the other chronic diseases impacts quality of life. As long as health-care delivery fails to target high-risk groups in developing countries such as ours infections like CSOM will persist with its adverse consequences. With the development and widespread use of antibiotics, the types of pathogenic micro-organisms and their sensitivity to antibiotics have changed. Continuous evaluation of pattern and antibiotic sensitivity of isolates is necessary to decrease the potential risk of complications by early institution of appropriate treatment.