Ear, Nose And Throat
Croup syndrome — a term uniting a group of infections of larynx (voice box) whose common feature is the obstruction of the central airways (stridor). Stridor is one of the key symptoms of laryngeal obstruction. This term refers to the harsh, often high-tone sound created by the rapid, turbulent flow of air through the narrowed large airways.
Mastoiditis is the inflammation of a portion of the temporal bone. This bone is located right behind the ear. It contains tiny cavities called mastoid air cells which are connected with the middle ear cavity. Normally, the air cells and middle air contain only moisturizing fluid produced by epithelial cells. But if there is an infection of the ear, the bacteria may crawl into the air cells and start mastoiditis. In rare cases the infection starts in the air cells without causing ear infection.
Swollen or large tonsils is called tonsillar hyperthrophy in medicine. This condition is extremely common. It is caused by an inflammation when tonsils grow in size due to immune cells multiplying. Tonsil is a gland that is similar to a lymph node, only it sits in the throat (and is not hidden under the skin like other lymph nodes).
Swimmer’s ear is a common name for a medical condition of the ear canal – otitis externa (OE). The reason this type of ear disease got this name is because many people who swim often develop it. Swimmer’s ear is an inflammation, that can be either infectious or non-infectious, of the external auditory canal. In some cases, inflammation can extend to the outer ear, such as the pinna or tragus.
Strep throat is a common name of a pharyngitis caused by the bacteria Streptococcus. Honestly, I do not know even one person who did not have it at least once in a lifetime. That is how frequent it is.
Here is some statistics. Group A Streptococcus (GAS) is the most common bacterial etiology for acute pharyngitis and accounts for 5 to 15% of all adult cases and 20 to 30% of all pediatric visits to the clinic. It is rare to be hospitalized with Strep throat.
Scarlet fever is an infection caused by toxin producing strains of Streptococcus pyogenes (also known as group A streptococcus, or GAS). It was associated with high levels of deaths and complications when epidemics were common in the 18th and 19th centuries in Europe and the USA.
Scarlet fever or ‘scarlatina’ is the name given to a disease caused by an infective Group A Streptococcal (GAS) bacteria. For many years, scarlet fever was very rare. But, once of a sudden, there has been a recent increase in the number of cases worldwide.
The tympanic membrane is highly sensitive to sudden changes in pressure in the external auditory canal and may get easily affected by these changes and get damaged. These perforations that occur are generally prone to spontaneous closure; however, the perforation size and possibility of spontaneous recovery are negatively correlated, and large perforations need longer recovery time
Laryngitis is an inflammation of the voice box called larynx. It is unusual to have a laryngitis separately from the upper respiratory infections. Upper respiratory infections (URIs) are infections of the mouth, nose, throat, larynx (voice box), and trachea (windpipe).
Deviated septum is a condition of the nose when the cartilage separating two nasal passages is deformed (not straight in shape). This happens frequently in people, and is usually found by the ENT doctor or an Allergy doctor who does a nose exam. You might notice a pale pink bulge in the middle of the nose while looking through the mirror inside your nostril. This may be a nasal septum deviating to one side.
Tonsillitis (sometimes referred as tonsilitis) is a medical term describing an inflammation of the tonsils – two rounded glands in the back of the throat. Tonsils are glands that serve an immune protection function. These are outposts for the immune cells to guard the upper airways (trachea and larynx) and lungs from infections. In a way these are similar to the lymph nodes (oval structures that you may feel under the jaw.