Treatment of External Auditory Canal Tick Bites: Case Report


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Gorgulu O., Ozdemir S., Selcuk T., Canbolat E. P., Akbas Y.

TURKIYE KLINIKLERI TIP BILIMLERI DERGISI, vol.32, no.3, pp.827-831, 2012 (SCI-Expanded) identifier identifier

Abstract

External auditory canal tick bites are quite rare conditions. Ticks are arthropods that mediate transmission of many diseases including Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever. Climatic changes caused by global warming, seasonal changes and geographic location are factors facilitating the reproduction of tick population and increasing the occurence of tick borne diseases. The aim of this report was to present patients who presented to our clinic with tick bite. One patient presented with a sense of mobile foreign body in the ear and another one with ear obstruction. While the third patient had excessive itching, the fourth one had an earache. The patients did not have other systemic or local complaints. The examination of the external auditory canal revealed a tick attached to the posterior upper part of the right external auditory canal in the first patient. A tick was attached to the left tympanic membrane in the second patient with ear obstruction, in the third and the fourth patients, ticks were close to the skin of the left external auditory canal. Ticks were removed carefully from the external auditory canal and they were obtained alive. The patients were monitored in an outpatient setting for 14 days after being informed about the complaints. No additional problems developed on follow-up. The technique of removal of the ticks from the body and follow up measures were presented in this paper.