Published Paper Details:

In India, most of the study in case of ear infection is done on otitis media but otitis externa is also one of the main causes of ear infection which may lead to impairment of hearing. Otitis externa is the infection and inflammation of the external ear and ear canal up to eardrum. It is also called swimmer�s ear as it is always associated with the swimmers. Present study concerns with the isolation and identification of bacterial pathogens from the patients of otitis externa and age-wise and gender-wise distribution of patients. The samples were collected by using a standard collection method from the infected ear and processed in the laboratory for the isolation of pathogenic bacteria. The bacteria were identified on the basis of 16SrRNA gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis. A total of six bacterial species was identified as Staphylococcus, Klebsiella, Bacillus, Acinetobacter, Exiguobacterium, and Enterococcus. Staphylococcus was found as the most frequently isolated bacterial species. In an age-wise distribution study out of 80, 43 patients belonged to the age group 0-18 years, 35 from the age group above 40 years, and 2 from the age group 19-40 years. In the gender-wise distribution study from a total of 80 patients, 57 were females and 23 were males. The most affected age group of otitis externa is children while the females were more affected than males. The high incidence of Staphylococcus showed the commonest cause of otitis externa. The data regarding isolated pathogens will be useful for topical antibiotic treatment.