Otomycosis in Basrah - Iraq

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to identify the causative agents, demographic characters, and presentation of otomycosis. This is a case series study which was carried out in Basrah governorate in the period between [April 2004-March 2005] on patients suspected to have otomycosis. Sterile swabs were used for sampling and direct smear and cultivation techniques were used for identification of fungal genus and species. From 135 patients suspected to have otomycosis, 101 patients [74.8%] were diagnosed to have otomycosis, 44 patients [43.6%] were males and 57 [56.4%] were females. The majority of the studied patients had unilateral disease [83 cases, 82.8%]. Aspergillus was the genus most often isolated, [74 isolates, 62.2% of total positive samples], five species were isolated, the second commonly isolated genus was Candida [30 cases, 25.2%], 3 species were isolated. The main complaints at the time of presentation were itching, followed by otalgia, hard of hearing, otorrhea and tinnitus respectively. The present study showed that Aspergillus spp. is one of the most common causative organisms implicated in the causation of otomycosis, microscopic examination only cannot be taken as evidence of negativity for fungal presence and has to be authenticated with a culture investigation of the specimen