Publication:

Otologic conditions seen in HIV positive adult patients in university of Port Harcourt teaching hospital

Background ENT manifestations have been reported in about 41-80% HIV infected patients worldwide. Some patient’s HIV status were first detected following an ENT condition. This study therefore is aimed at determining the pattern of the otologic conditions found among HIV positive adults in university of Port Harcourt teaching hospitalMethods: A hospital based descriptive study of adult patients that are HIV positive attending the infectious outpatient clinic of university of Port Harcourt teaching hospital was carried out within a period of 5 months; 1st July to 1st December 2020. Consecutive patients were recruited using a semi structured questionnaire and information sought included; patients demographics, presence or absence of ear complaints, duration of HIV infection and duration of antiretroviral treatment (ARVT). The patients all had complete ENT examination done.  Informed consent was obtained from the patients. Ethical clearance obtained. Obtained data was analyzed using IBM SPSS version 25 software at a 95% confidence interval and a p value less than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results The commonest complaint among these patients was catarrh seen in 35.1% followed by noise in the ears in 17.6% while aural fullness was seen in 13.4%. Cerumen auris (14.2%) was the commonly seen otologic condition followed by otitis externa (13.0%). The prevalence of otologic disorders among the HIV positive population studied was 61.1%.

Conclusions Otologic conditions are common among HIV positive patients with cerumen auris and otitis externa being the commonly occurring disorder.