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Case Report
Aural myiasis by Sarcophagidae in a pediatric patient: A case report and literature review
1 Medical Student, Anne Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA
2 MD, FAAP, Emergency Medicine Physician, Emergency Department, Cook Children’s Hospital; Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Anne Burnett School of Medicine at Texas Christian University, Fort Worth, TX, USA
Address correspondence to:
Emery Mintz
1424 Summit Avenue, Apt. 3039, Fort Worth, TX 76102,
USA
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Article ID: 100022Z19EM2023
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Mintz E, Smitherman H. Aural myiasis by Sarcophagidae in a pediatric patient: A case report and literature review. J Case Rep Images Pediatr 2023;5(2):6–11.ABSTRACT
Introduction: Physicians often treat patients in the urgent and non-urgent settings who present with various types of foreign bodies lodged in the external auditory canal (EAC). This can cause significant distress to the patient, as well as the caregiver in pediatric cases. Typically, these objects are inanimate and include beads, rocks, toys, craft supplies, food particles, and jewelry. However, sometimes the patient will present with biotic organisms in the ear that seem to cause considerably more distress and damage, including otalgia and otorrhea from abrasions to the EAC, or damage to the tympanic membrane. These creatures can present alive or dead in the EAC. The culprits can include crawling and flying species. However, even rarer, the larval stages have been reported. When an ear is infested by Diptera larvae, the juvenile stage of a fly, the parasitosis is known as aural myiasis.
Case Report: In this case, a 7-year-old boy in acute distress presented to the emergency department with left ear otalgia and pruritis. His ear canal was covered in dried blood, and he was found to have 15–20 maggots belonging to the Sarcophagidae family in the left EAC that were removed via lidocaine application and normal saline irrigation.
Conclusion: The patient and his caregivers were educated on hygienic practices and advised on outpatient follow-up. Further research is indicated for best practices treating aural myiasis and establishing environmental risk factors.
Keywords: Aural myiasis, Otalgia, Otic foreign body, Parasitosis
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Wizzie Brown, BCE, Senior Program Specialist with IPM and Entomology at Texas A&M AgriLife for assistance and Dr. James Marshall, MD for critical review prior to submission.
Author ContributionsEmery Mintz - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Hannah Smitherman - Conception of the work, Design of the work, Acquisition of data, Analysis of data, Drafting the work, Revising the work critically for important intellectual content, Final approval of the version to be published, Agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work in ensuring that questions related to the accuracy or integrity of any part of the work are appropriately investigated and resolved.
Guaranter of SubmissionThe corresponding author is the guarantor of submission.
Source of SupportNone
Consent StatementWritten informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this article.
Data AvailabilityAll relevant data are within the paper and its Supporting Information files.
Conflict of InterestAuthors declare no conflict of interest.
Copyright© 2023 Emery Mintz et al. This article is distributed under the terms of Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original author(s) and original publisher are properly credited. Please see the copyright policy on the journal website for more information.
