Surfer's ear.

Abstract

We examined fifty-one Japanese professional surfers in order to analyze 'surfer's ear'. Forty -one cases (80%) , seventy-one ears, were diagnosed as 'sufer's ear'. In ninteen cases (37%), thirty ears, the external auditory canals have stenosed by more than fifty percent. In general 'sufer's ear' begins to appear after five-year experience of surfin and agravates.The age when they began to practice surfin has no influence on the appearence of 'surfer's ear'. From the view point of their practicing places, the surfers from northern areas have severer 'surfer's ear' than those from southern areas.

Prevalence of External Auditory Canal Exostoses in Surfers

“…Results of our study indicate an overall prevalence of 73.5% EAE among avid surfers. Our findings are also consistent with those of smaller previously published studies supporting a positive dose relationship between number of years of surfing and the severity of exostoses 12,14 (Figure). The representation of moderate and severe exostoses increases as the number of years of surfing increases.…”

“…2 Cold-water exposure is the most consistent characteristic in the history of patients with EAE. 12,14 In fact, Deleyiannis and coworkers 14 postulate that surfers of the warmer southern California waters (16.6°C) may require a longer duration of exposure to produce EAE. This is based on the finding that their patients (Oregon and northern California coldwater surfers) had developed significant ear canal obstruction after having surfed in water temperatures ranging from 9.4°C to 11.1°C for 5 years or longer, whereas the southern California surfers (30 [43%] of the 70 patients) in the study by DiBartolomeo 3 showed the presence of exostoses after having surfed for longer than 10 years.…”

“…Harrison 11 examined the ears of 2352 freshwater and seawater swimmers and found a 1.2% overall prevalence of EAE. Limited research was done on the epidemiological aspects of this topic until 1989, when Umeda and Nakajima 12 examined the ears of 51 profes-ORIGINAL ARTICLE sional surfers in Japan and found that 80% of them had exostoses of the external auditory canal. Karegeannes 13 conducted another prevalence study comparing the incidence of EAE in 87 U.S. Navy divers compared with an age-matched control group and found that EAE was present in 26% of the divers and in 0% of the controls.…”

“…With respect to the location of the EAE lesions, Umeda and Nakajima 12 suggested that EAE follows a specific growth pattern. They found that anterosuperior EAE occurred most frequently, followed by anteroinferior and posterosuperior, and posteroinferior exostoses were found least frequently.…”

A reevaluation of the cold water etiology of external auditory exostoses

“…Generally, clinical studies have focused on the role of cold water and associated erythema of the auditory canal as the primary etiology for auditory exostoses (Adams, 1951;DiBartolomeo, 1985;Eike and Pedersen, 1994;Fowler and Osmun, 1942;Ohgaki et al, 1992;Oostvogel and Huttenbrink, 1992;Umeda et al, 1989;Van Gilse, 1938).…”