The Importance of Ears in Emergency Medicine

A 23-year-old woman presents with a one-week history of right ear pain. She had her fourth earring placed about three weeks ago but opted for a stud in the upper part of her ear this time because she liked the looks of it. It was painful for a day or two after the piercing but she felt fine after that. About a week ago, the pain came back as a dull ache and she noticed some redness slowly spreading around the stud. The patient has pericundritis of her ear, an infection of the cartilage. Whenever ear cartilage is infected, you really have to consider coverage for pseudomonas. This tends to live in this area