NEW ENGLAND -- A nine-year-old boy was complaining of a buzzing sound in his ear. When the doctor's checked him, they found a tick attached to his eardrum.
In a case study research conducted in New England Journal of Medicine, the doctors have documented in detail how the child was taken to a pediatric ear, nose and throat specialist after he made complaints of hearing buzzing sounds in his ear. The boy said that the buzzing sound in his ear has been going on for three days.
Before the complaints, the boy said that he has been spending his free time playing outside of his school in Connecticut. When the doctor examined his ear, they found that there was a tick attached to his eardrum. It looked like it was stuck inside. The area surrounding the tick was already inflamed.
Despite the situation, the boy wasn't suffering from any form of ear diseases like tinnitus. There was no form of any pain. Using a specialized microscope, the doctors tried to carefully remove the tick that is burrowed inside the child's ear. However, their efforts did not prove to be fruitful and the child was taken to surgery,
The insect has attached itself on the boy's eardrum. The capitulum, the part of the tick that it uses to feed, was seen buried under the outer layer of the eardrum. Through surgery, the doctors were able to remove and identify the culprit. The tick that latched on to the eardrum was identified as Dermacentor variabilis. It is a common tick found in American dogs, known to carry bacteria responsible for several diseases in humans, including Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia (Francisella tularensis).
When the tick was removed, the boy was checked for any signs of illnesses that he could have gotten from the tick. He was also given antibiotics to help in the healing process. A month after, his ears were healing well and his body was responding well to the medications. Dr. Erik Waldman, the chief of pediatric otolaryngology of the Yale New Haven Children's Hospital, who also worked on the case said they had a bit of a difficult time removing the tick.
"It didn't come out easily as its mouth was stuck in the eardrum," Dr. David Kasle. "While the boy claims to be hearing buzzing sounds from his ears, the sound he was hearing may be coming from the tick getting inside his ear and settling down in his eardrum... Essentially, the closer the insect crawls to the eardrum through the ear canal, the louder the sound will be. As the bug got closer to the eardrum, the sound became louder and that was when the boy probably complained of the sound getting louder," Kasle said.
