pregabalin and Earache

To assess painful diabetic neuropathy (PDN) as a cause for refractory ear pain in type 2 diabetics.. An observational prospective case series study.. Otolaryngology departments of tertiary referral hospitals from November 2019 to January 2021.. Sixty-eight patients with type 2 diabetes with refractory ear pain of more than 1-month duration not responding to the routine analgesics.. Diagnostic intervention.. The primary outcome measure was the prevalence of painful diabetic neuropathy among different causes of ear pain in the study sample of type II diabetics with refractory ear pain with an assessment of the response of these cases to routine neuropathic pain treatment with pregabalin.. Fifteen out of 68 (22.1%) were diagnosed as having painful diabetic neuropathy based on the "Douleur Neuropathique en 4 Questions" (DN4) questionnaire with its mean value being 6.47±1.19. There was a highly significant improvement of the 10 items of painful diabetic neuropathy scales after 1 month of treatment ( p < 0.001 for all). There was a significant positive correlation between the Hemoglobin A1c level and duration of diabetes at one hand and intensity of pain derived from the painful diabetic neuropathy scale at the other hand ( p = 0.0002, and p = 0.032 respectively).. Painful diabetic neuropathy showed a potential correlation with refractory ear pain in type II diabetic patients with significant improvement after painful diabetic neuropathy treatment. Further studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Topics: Analgesics; Diabetes Mellitus, Type 2; Diabetic Neuropathies; Earache; Humans; Pain; Pregabalin

Eagle syndrome is a rare condition presenting with retroauricular pain (usually as main symptom) associated with dysphagia, headache, neck pain on rotation and, much rarelier, stroke. This occurs due to styloid process elongation. Sometimes, there is also styloid ligament calcification, which can cause compression of nerves and arteries and the symptoms above. Treatment can be conservative with pain modulators (e.g. pregabalin) or infiltrations (steroids or anesthetics drugs). In refractory cases, surgical approach aiming to reduce the size of the styloid process can be performed. We present a rare case of Eagle syndrome (documented by computed tomography) with good response to clinical treatment.

Topics: Analgesics; Earache; Female; Humans; Imaging, Three-Dimensional; Middle Aged; Ossification, Heterotopic; Pregabalin; Temporal Bone; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Treatment Outcome