What Do You Do About Barotrauma to the Ear?

Discussion Most ear barotrauma discussions are directed toward diving barotrauma where patients may have sudden nausea, headache, ear pain, tinnitus, deafness and vertigo. The tympanic membrane itself is evaluated on the Teed scale: 0 – Normal ear 1 – Congestion around the umbo, (happens with pressure differential of 2 pounds per square inch) 2 – Congestion of entire tympanic membrane (happens with a pressure differential of 2-3 pounds per square inch) 3 – Middle ear hemorrhage 4 – Extensive middle ear hemorrhage with visible blood bubbles behind the tympanic membrane, and tympanic membrane may rupture. 5 – Entire middle ear filled with deoxygenated (dark) blood The patient above would be a Teed 1 who had congestion around the umbo and not the entire ear or middle ear hemorrhage. Another type of barotrauma is blast injury which the above patient’s injury was more consistent with. Primary blast injury is due to the high-pressure blast wave acting on the body. This has the most effect on air containing organs such as the ear, lung and bowel. Secondary blast injury is due to flying debris from the blast itself. Tertiary blast injury is due to impact with another object such as being thrown by the blast wind. Obviously all 3 types of injuries can occur in a patient and severity depends on many factors especially distance from the blast. With blast injuries the most common symptoms are hearing loss, tinnitus (most improve but may be perm...
Source: PediatricEducation.org - Category: Pediatrics Authors: Tags: Uncategorized Source Type: news