A Clinical Analysis on Ear Fulling Sensation

Lee, Sang Cheol; Jeong, Jin Ho; Lee, Sang Mok; Lee, Jae Wan; Eom, Jae Wook; Park, Chun Keun

doi:10.35420/jcohns.1994.5.1.47

J Clin Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 1994; 5(1):47-57

pISSN: 1225-0244, eISSN: 2713-833X

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35420/jcohns.1994.5.1.47

원저

귀충만감 환자에 대한 임상적 고찰

이상철¹, 정진호¹, 이상목¹, 이재완¹, 엄재욱¹, 박춘근¹

A Clinical Analysis on Ear Fulling Sensation

Sang Cheol Lee¹, Jin Ho Jeong¹, Sang Mok Lee¹, Jae Wan Lee¹, Jae Wook Eom¹, Chun Keun Park¹

Author Information & Copyright ▼

¹인제대학교 의과대학 이비인후과학교실 부산백병원

¹Department of Otolaryngology, College of Medicine, Inje University, Pusan Paik Hospital

© Copyright 1994 The Busan, Ulsan, Gyeoungnam Branch of Korean Society of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Published Online: May 31, 2020

ABSTRACT

Although the ear fulling sensation or blocked ear is commonly associated with various ear diseases, it has not been investigated so far. Clinically this symptom can be represented most frequently in eustachian tube dysfunction, which has long been considered to be the primary cause of ear fullig sensation.

Authors analysed on 1503 patients(2076 ears) who can represent their otologic symptoms obviously among the 1613 otologic patients(2187 ears), on the view point of ear fulling sensation, from July 1992 to June 1993, and report the following results:

Ear fulling sensation as a chief complaint and as a accompanying symptom accounts for 131 ears(6.3%) and 304 ears(14.6%) of all diseased ears respectively.
Among the patients with ear fulling sensation as a chief symptom, there was no significant difference in sexual distribution, and age distribution revealed high prevalance in 4th and 5th decades.
There was no significant difference in monthly distribution among the ears with fulling sensation as a chief symptom except August(23 ears, 17.3%).
There was high incidence of ear fulling sensation as a chief complaint in impacted cerumen(29.7%), acute and chronic eustachian tube dysfunction(32.9% & 32.7%), acute SNHL in low frequency(18.8%), acoustic trauma(20.0%), and as accompanying complaint in external ear canal injury(l8.2%), traumatic tympanic membrane perforation(20.09S), acute eustachian tube dysfunction(l7.1%), otitis media with effusion(17.4%), cholesteatomatous otitis media(36.5%), adhesive otitis media(28.6%), conductive hearing loss(50.0%), Meniere's disease(46.2%), delayed endolymphatic hydrops(28.6%), sudden deafness(53.3%), acute SNHL in low frequency(25.0%), inner ear disorders of unknown origin(25.0%), acoustic trauma(20.0%), labyrinthine concussion(50.0%), labyrinthine ischemia(26.9%) and so on.
Among the ears with fulling sensation as a chief symptom, 33 ears(25.2%) had no other symptoms than ear fulling sensation, but remaining ears had accompanying otologic symptoms as tinnitus(40.0%), hearing loss(35.1%), autophonia(26.0%).
The findings of pure tone audiometry of ears with fulling sensation as a chief symptom revealed high incidence of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.
The findings of tympanogram in chronic eustachian tube dysfunction with ear fulling sensation as a chief symptom showed high tendency of A type rather than other types.

Keywords: Ear fulling sensation; Clinical analysis