TITLE:
SARS-CoV-2 Infection Caused COVID-19 Related Otitis Media Is Commonly Existed with Good Prognosis
AUTHORS:
Guojin Zhou, Feng Zhao, Jinyan Shao
KEYWORDS:
Otitis Media, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, IL-6
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.11 No.9,
September
8,
2023
ABSTRACT: Otitis media with effusion is a common disease in otolaryngology. Bacteria are the most common pathogen of otitis media with effusion, and other factors such as viruses have also been reported. The present study is aimed to investigate whether the increasing otitis media cases recently is correlated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and the COVID-19-related otitis media is commonly existed. Thirty-two patients with otitis media were enrolled Blood cell analysis, C-reactive protein, interleukin-6 test bacterial and fungal cultures were tested. Nine patients were identified with positive SARS-CoV-2 RNA in middle ear discharge. All the subjects had the common symptoms of stuffy ear, hearing loss, and echoacousia. No positive results were found in cultures for bacterial and fungus of middle ear discharge. The levels of C-reactive protein (CRP) were significantly up-regulated in positive cases (P = 0.0335). The levels of proinflammatory cytokine interleukin-6 (IL-6) were higher in positive cases. There were no significant differences of age, gender and prothrombin time (PT) between positive and negative cases. Nasal sprays, ciliary stimulants, and prophylactic antibiotics or low-dose steroid treatments were sequentially used in the otitis media patients caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection. All the patients had improvements of typical symptoms within two to four weeks during the following-up. Thus, SARS-CoV-2 infection caused COVID-19 related otitis media is commonly existed, and the prognosis is good after treatments.