Sujatha S, Venugopalan P. G
BACKGROUND: Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media (CSOM) is a disease of multiple aetiology and well known for its persistence and recurrence inspite of treatment and are the bearbug of otologist, paediatrician and general practitioner. One of the reasons for the refractoriness to treatment and chronicity is coexisting fungal infection of the ear. OBJECTIVES: Are to find out the prevalence of fungal infections in chronic discharging ears and to identify and isolate the type of fungus prevalent in these ears. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Tertiary care hospital level descriptive study was conducted in 50 cases of CSOM with actively discharging ears for a period of one year starting from February 2013. For all the cases aural swabs were collected from the diseased ear and were used for direct microscopic examination in potassium hydroxide wet mount. Ear swab was cultured on Sabouraud’s dextrose agar plate for fungal cultures. The patient characteristics were prospectively recorded and results were analysed. CONCLUSION: There is high prevalence of coexisting fungal infection in actively discharging ears of CSOM patients
