Swimmers Ear

Affecting the outer ear, swimmer's ear is a condition causing pain resulting from inflammation, irritation, or infection. These symptoms are experienced when water is trapped in your ear allowing bacteria to spread, causing a painful sensation. Because this condition commonly affects swimmers, it is known as swimmer's ear. Swimmer's ear affects mostly children and teenagers.  Your doctor will prescribe treatment to reduce your pain.

What Causes Swimmer's Ear?
A common source of the infection is increased moisture trapped in the ear canal, bathing, or showering, increased humidity or living in warm moist climates may also contribute to this common infection. When water is trapped in the ear canal. Bacteria that normally inhabit the skin and ear canal multiply, causing infection and irritation of the ear canal. If the infection gets worse, it may affect other areas of the ear. Swimmer's ear needs to be treated to reduce pain and eliminate any effect it may have on your hearing.

Other factors that may contribute to swimmer's ear include:

• contact with excessive bacteria that may be present in hot tubs or polluted water
• excessive cleaning of the ear canal with cotton swabs
• a cut in the skin of the ear canal

What Are the Signs and Symptoms?
The most common symptoms of swimmer's ear are an itchy ear and mild to moderate pain that gets worse when you tug on the auricle (outer ear). Other signs and symptoms may include any of the following:

• sensation that the ear is blocked or full
• drainage
• decreased hearing
• redness and swelling of the skin around the ear

If left untreated, complications resulting from swimmer's ear may include:

Hearing loss. When the infection clears up, hearing usually returns to its normal state.
Recurring ear infections (chronic otitis externa). Without treatment, infection can occur.
Bone and cartilage damage  When ear infections spread to the base of your skull, brain, or cranial nerves they become painful and dangerous. Diabetics and older adults are more at risk.

To evaluate you for swimmer's ear, your doctor will look for redness and swelling in your ear. Your doctor also may take a sample of any abnormal fluid or discharge in your ear to test for the presence of bacteria or fungus (ear culture) if you have recurrent infections.

How Is Swimmer's Ear Treated?
Treatment for the early stages of swimmer's ear includes careful cleaning of the ear canal and eardrops that inhibit bacterial growth. For more severe infections, your doctor may prescribe antibiotics to be applied directly to the ear. If the ear canal is swollen shut, a sponge or wick may be placed in the ear canal so that the antibiotic drops will be effective. Pain medication may also be prescribed. If you have tubes in your eardrum, a non oto-toxic (will not affect your hearing) topical treatment should be used. Topical antibiotics are effective for infection limited to the ear canal. Oral antibiotics may also be prescribed if the infection goes beyond the skin of the ear canal.

Follow-up appointments are very important to monitor progress of the infection, to repeat ear cleaning, and to replace the ear wick as needed. Your otolaryngologist has specialized equipment and expertise to effectively clean the ear canal and treat swimmer's ear. With proper treatment, most infections should heal in 7- 10 days.


This information is provided by the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, Inc., (AAO-HNS) and the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery Foundation, Inc. (AAO-HNSF) for educational purposes only. Any information provided in this website should not be considered medical advice or a substitute for a consultation with an Otolaryngologist - Head and Neck surgeon or other physician.