Right Ear Pain and Neck Swelling

Abstract

CASE PRESENTATION HASKELL KIRKPATRICK, MD: A 50-year-old, previously healthy white man with right ear pain and hearing loss, right facial swelling, right hemisphere headaches, slurred speech, and right-sided facial paralysis was transferred to Baylor University Medical Center (BUMC) from one of its affiliated hospitals. The patient was in his usual state of health until 2 weeks prior to the first hospital admission. The patient claimed that during a camping trip, an insect thought to be a centipede crawled into his right ear. He spent approximately 1 hour removing the insect from his ear canal. Afterward, he began to experience increasing pain and swelling. The next day he was seen by his primary care physician, who prescribed an unknown antibiotic. The patient noted no improvement in symptoms and was evaluated 2 days later by an otolaryngologist who "drained his ear canal" and changed his