Inflammation of the middle ear is a type of otitis media that can even affect two ears. To prevent the formation of such a disease and its prevention, you can try blowing out your ears.
What is otitis media
Otitis media is an inflammation of the middle ear. With such a disease, inflammation appears in the ear cavity, pus accumulates. This disease can be encountered at any age, but most often it is seen in children. In babies, repeated otitis media are detected due to the anatomical specificity of the structure of the middle ear: the tube (auditory) in children is shorter than in adults, it is almost even and has no folds. This structure of the ear in a child simplifies the penetration of infection into the ear cavity. During the first 3 years of life, about 80% of children get otitis media once.
Why blow out ears
Estachian tube cleaning is the introduction into the middle ear of the air flow under its pressure for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. The event is advised to do in the treatment of consequences of severe, chronic inflammation of the middle ear and after tympanoplasty.
Valsalva purge method
This way of self-cleaningconsidered the simplest. With this technique, the patient must blow the ear through the nose, holding it with his fingers, and begin to blow out the air with tension, penetrating through the nasopharynx into the auditory tube. The downsides of this method are:
- likely to rupture the eardrum if a lot of force is applied;
- reflux of infection and secretion from the sinus into the middle ear;
- it is allowed to blow only one ear;
- inability to measure the volume of incoming air;
- do not inject drugs into the Eustachian tube.
Modified Politzer Method
When treating a patient with exudative otitis media, purging by means of a rubber tube and an olive connected to the container is carried out in order to produce air pressure to open the passage of the auditory tube, as well as to remove the exudate that has collected in the tympanic cavity.
How to properly blow out the ears with this method? To make blowing, you must first perform a clean anemization of the pharyngeal opening of the ear and the mucous wall of the nasopharynx. To do this, when inhaling, a 3% mixture of ephedrine chloride (1 ml) mixed with a 0.1% solution of adrenaline (1 drop) is sprayed into the nose. Such an event is done several times without stopping with an interval of 3-5 minutes. If there is no nebulizer, then cotton can be wrapped around the nasal probe, well soaked with the indicated mixture of ephedrine, and the ears can be blown with this technique.
Now the probe should be inserted into the sinus of the nose (instead of the "sick" tube) until it stops in the backmembrane of the throat. Then you need to pull it back a little, lay the patient's head on the inflamed ear, so that the anemic solution flows from the fleece into the pipe. After a few minutes, the probe can be removed and proceed to the second moment of the cleaning procedure. The patient's head is turned over to the other side, tilting it forward, and then turned to the he althy side so that the diseased ear is on top and the tube is perpendicular, and the exudate can drain from the tympanic cavity down through the auditory tube. And now, for sure, it is already becoming clear to many how to blow out the ears with otitis media.
The air let into the tympanic sinus, increasing the intratympanic pressure, pushes out its flexible part, which, due to elasticity, takes its original position, displacing the exudate that has accumulated near the opening of the auditory tube. In certain situations, such cleaning is enough to achieve the desired result. However, it happens that the patency of the auditory tube is fully restored, but the exudate during the period of indisposition has received such a sticky consistency that it cannot be freely evacuated naturally. Sometimes, to get rid of it, it is necessary to blow out the ears again.
Young children often resist using the Politzer method. In this case, the baby is laid on his back to fix his position. Then the tip of the vessel is placed in one nostril, and the other is covered with a finger. The child should open his mouth to pour a teaspoon of water into it at this time. In the momentswallowing process, air is blown in. If there is a valve-like closure of the passage of the auditory tube or the adenoid tissue is adjacent directly to it, then the cleaning will not work.
Disadvantages of this method
And then the question arises - is it possible to blow out the ears? Yes, however, when the main factor in the disease is a persistent dysfunction of the auditory tube, it is rather difficult to hope for good results only when cleaning the organ. In most of the children who fell ill with exudative otitis media, as a result of the tympanometry method, critical intratympanic pressure was noticed. After blowing out the ear with a Politzer balloon, the pressure in the tympanic sinus, as a rule, improved, but returned to the initial level after 15-20 minutes.
With long and persistent retraction of the tympanic membrane, if adhesive manifestations occur (including repeated changes in the contracted muscles of the middle ear), cleaning is ineffective. And besides, it may happen that it will be painful to blow out the ears.
Usefulness of the event
Even if we consider the result of ear cleaning with constant otitis media as a temporary course, then such a procedure can still be positive due to its massaging effect. With each blowing, the tympanic membrane changes its location, as a result of which the compressed muscle tendon stretches the membrane, and the auditory ossicles in the joints are weakened. But all this is significant for the prevention of adhesive processes in the tympanic sinus, as well as ankylosis.bones.
Need to know
It should be understood that blowing out the ears is required with extreme caution, without using excessive air pressure so as not to rupture the membrane of the cochlear window and the eardrum. There is a possibility of such deterioration, indicating the possibility of breaking the chain of auditory ossicles. These complications can begin when the ear is purged during the Valsalva method, when the air pressure in the auditory tube can be quite high.
There is another kind of dosed ear blowing. It is recommended to perform such self-blowing in a relatively gentle way: pinch your nose with your fingers and, puffing out your cheeks, make a swallowing movement. This effect is more durable than with a simple Valsalva method.
Ear cleaning with massage
How to blow out your ears at home? It is also possible with the help of pneumomassage of the tympanic membrane, which is done manually, massaging the tragus, which tightly closes the entrance to the auditory opening. To do this, you can also use the Siegle funnel or a separate pneumatic massager, which produces air pressure in the ear canal and thereby promotes the bones and the eardrum.
Many patients notice that they feel better as a result of massaging the tragus with a finger. It is important that during the implementation of this event (and when it is necessary to blow out the ears too), the patient's head leans towards the he althy ear. Due to the correct air compression, the eardrum, pressing inward, pushes the next one to the exit.a portion of exudate accumulating at the tympanic passage of the auditory tube.
With a catheter
This method is good because it is possible to clean only one ear and inject a medication into the auditory tube. A steel ear catheter of the required size (their difference is in the numbering) after preparatory anemization of the nasal cavity and light local anesthesia of the mucous wall of the nasal passage is carefully installed in the internal nasal passage and its curved beak is substituted for the opening of the Eustachian tube. And now you can understand how to properly blow out your ears.
With the help of the Politzer container, as well as the otoscope, which connects the patient's ear with the doctor's organ, a clear sound of air being conducted through the auditory tube is heard. As a result of this procedure, the desired medicinal substance is introduced into the deep distal section of the catheter, and the agent is blown into the Politzer vessel along with air. This entire cleaning process is controlled through an otoscope.
Diagnosis of otitis media
Diagnosis of such a disease is usually done by an otolaryngologist. If the patient has any suspicious symptoms, you need to immediately contact a specialist, and he will tell you how to blow out your ears at home. It should also be noted that the recognition of otitis in babies is complicated due to the limited oral contact of the doctor with the child.
Contraindication
Ear cleaning is harmful if there are acute inflammatory processes in the nasopharynx andnose due to the likelihood of the air flow carrying pathogens into the tympanic sinus, as well as the formation of purulent and acute otitis media.
Complications and prognosis
The following deteriorations are likely if the disease was treated with inadequate therapy, or it was not completed:
- brain abscess;
- mastoiditis (inflammation of the mastoid process) where surgery is needed;
- meningitis.
Prognosis with correct and appropriate treatment of otitis is positive. But it’s better to always try to take care of yourself, avoiding cool and windy places, so that later you don’t wonder if a doctor can blow out your ear, and then you have to turn to for help.
