Background: Otalgia is defined as pain localizing in the ear that can be primary or referred. By careful history and physical examination, all causes in this extensive differential diagnosis can be excluded. Given that otalgia is one of the most common causes for patients to visit the clinic and has a wide variety of differential diagnosis, the purpose of this study is to investigate the frequency of different etiologies of ear pain in patients referred to referral clinic.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed on patients presenting with otalgia. After entering the study, the patient underwent a thorough examination of the ear, nose, throat, head and neck, teeth and salivary glands by a resident under the supervision of a senior otologist, and based on the findings, relevant para clinical procedures such as x-ray, CT scan or stroboscopy were performed. Data collection was done based on a data log check list. Samples were collected during six months. SPSS software version 20 was used for analyses.
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Results: The most common causes of otalgia were acute otitis media 29%, external otitis 17% and chronic otitis media 15%. Cerumen and referral ear pain were next in line (13.5%). There was significant relationship between otalgia with age groups (The age between 13 and 30 years were the most referred due to otalgia). There was no significant relationship between otalgia and gender, underlying disease, economic status, smoking and opium use.
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Conclusion: Given that otalgia is a common complaint in patients referred to the clinic, knowing its causes and origin is useful in diagnosing, proper treating it and avoiding unnecessary para clinical procedures and empirical treatment. The most common causes of otalgia in this study were acute otitis media, otitis externa and chronic otitis media, respectively. Referral otalgia and cerumen impaction were the next causes. Among the age groups, the age between 13 and 30 years were the most referred due to otalgia, but there was no significant relationship with any of the variables of gender, economic status and smoking and opium use.
