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Otitis externa - Making a diagnosis
Symptoms

  • Severe ear pain, disproportionate to the size of the lesion — typical.
  • Sudden relief of pain if the furuncle bursts — rare.
  • Loss of hearing if there is sufficient swelling to occlude the ear canal — rare.

[Haynes and Liou, 2004; Osguthorpe and Nielsen, 2006; DynaMed, 2007]

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