ACUTE OTITIS EXTERNA AS SEEN AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA TEACHING HOSPITAL, ENUGU.

Aim: is to evaluate clinical features of AOE diagnosed in and to update the previous study from our facility. Methods: A prospective, clinical and laboratory study in a tertiary health facility Results: A total of 3793 consecutive patients that attended the otorhinolaryngology clinics of the university of Nigeria teaching hospital Enugu during the period under study were assessed for clinical diagnosis of otitis externa. A total of 155 ears from 127 patients were diagnosed clinically and confirmed by microbial studies as having acute otitis externa. There were 66 males and 61 females out of the 127 patients seen. 71 ears had only bacteria isolated from the culture of their ear swab specimens, 28 fungus only and, 32 ears had both bacterial and fungal isolates while 24 ears had no isolates of microbes of the 3793 patients assessed. Conclusions: Acute otitis externa is a common disease in Enugu with no gender bias and there were three times more cases of bacterial otitis externa than fungal otitis externa.