From Diagnosis to Treatment of Human Otoacariasis: Demographic and Clinical Characteristics of Patients

OBJECTIVE: Otoacariasis is the presence of ticks and mites in the ear canals of humans or animals, and particularly common in rural areas. This study aimed to present the clinical characteristics of patients that presented with ticks in their ear canal. METHODS: The study was conducted with a total of 425 patients with 527 ticks in their ear canal at the Muş Malazgirt State Hospital Ear-Nose-Throat Clinic between June 2019 and June 2020. The removed ticks were examined at the parasitology laboratory of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University. RESULTS: Of the 425 cases included in the study, 72% (n=306) were female and 28% (n=119) were male (mean age 40±20, minimum-maximum: 4 months–81 years). A total of 527 ticks were removed in the one-year period. Three-hundred-and-fifty-one patients had adult or nymph ticks, and 74 patients had a larval form of the tick. Of the patients with adult or nymph tick, foreign body sensation was the dominant symptom in 68.7% (n=242), whereas pain was the dominant symptom in 62% (n=46) of those with larval tick. In the comparison between groups, foreign body sensation was statistically significantly higher in the adult tick group, and pain was higher in the larval tick group (p<0.001). There were no systemic diseases related to the ticks in any of the cases. CONCLUSION: Ticks in the ear is endemic in Eastern Anatolia and poses a public health problem. Tick infestations could be minimized with various precautions and educating the general public on preventive methods. Our study is the largest series in the literature on cases with ear ticks.