To Ear Plug or Not to Ear Plug

Seems like a fairly simple question... but oh what controversy it stirs up when regarding a patient with ear tubes who wants to go swimming. There are two schools of thought... 1) Based on evidence and research, no need to wear ear plugs... ever. The argument... Well, here's the research: A meta-analysis of swimming and water precautions. Water precautions and tympanostomy tubes: a randomized, controlled trial. A meta-analysis of swimming and water precautions. The effect of w…

7/20/2012 2

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Amoeba Deaths from Neti-Pot Use and How to Minimize Risk

In the past few weeks, there have been numerous stories about the 2nd death in Louisiana from Neti-Pot use leading to an amoeba infection of the brain. The culprit organism Naegleria fowleri causes a life-threatening encephalitis after passing thru the nose and up into the brain where the organism eats neurons for food. As such, recommendations have been issued to use water as instructed with the Neti-Pot packaging... water should be boiled, distilled, or filtered. However, before the mi…

12/22/2011 1

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