Painful Diabetic Neuropathy as a Cause for Refractory Ear Pain in Type 2 Diabetic Patients

Objective To assess painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) as a cause for refractory ear pain in type 2 diabetics. Design An observational prospective case series study. Setting Otolaryngology departments of tertiary referral hospitals from November 2019 to January 2021. Patients Sixty-eight patients with type 2 diabetes with refractory ear pain of more than 1-month duration not responding to the routine analgesics. Intervention Diagnostic intervention. Main Outcome Measure The primary outcome measure was the prevalence of painful diabetic neuropathy among different causes of ear pain in the study sample of type II diabetics with refractory ear pain with an assessment of the response of these cases to routine neuropathic pain treatment with pregabalin. Results Fifteen out of 68 (22.1%) were diagnosed as having painful diabetic neuropathy based on the “Douleur Neuropathique en 4 Questions” (DN4) questionnaire with its mean value being 6.47±1.19. There was a highly significant improvement of the 10 items of painful diabetic neuropathy scales after 1 month of treatment (p
Source: Otology and Neurotology - Category: ENT & OMF Tags: Medical neutorology Source Type: research