Title

Clinico-microbiological assessment of necrotizing otitis externa in subjects with diabetes mellitus in India

Authors

Rajeev Kumar Nishad¹, Reetu Verma² & Priyanka Das^3,*

Affiliation

¹Department of ENT, Autonomous State Medical College, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India; ²Department of Anaesthesiology, Autonomous State Medical College, Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh, India; ³Department of ENT, Himalaya Medical College and Hospital, Patna, Bihar, India; *Corresponding author

Email

Rajeev Kumar Nishad - E-mail: drrajeevkumarnishad@gmail.com

Reetu Verma - E-mail: vermareetu001@gmail.com

Priyanka Das - E-mail: das.upashana360@gmail.com

Article Type

Research Article

Date

Received April 1, 2026; Revised April 30, 2026; Accepted April 30, 2026, Published April 30, 2026

Abstract

Necrotizing otitis externa (NOE) represents a severe progression of otitis externa, particularly threatening in diabetic patients, with limited clinico-microbiological data for Indians. Therefore, it is of interest to evaluate the clinico-microbiological profile in 60 diabetic adults diagnosed with NOE at a tertiary center. Among participants (mean age 60.51±9.6 years; 60% male), universal findings included external auditory canal edema, otorrhea and severe nocturnal otalgia; pus cultures grew Pseudomonas spp. in 43.3% (n=26), with no growth in 13.3% (n=8), mild conductive hearing loss in 16.7% (n=10) and facial nerve palsy (with/without glossopharyngeal involvement) in 6.7% (n=4). Pseudomonas dominance and characteristic symptoms align with global patterns, but high complication rates underscore local management gaps. Thus, we report the Indian cohort profile of NOE in diabetes, informing targeted antibiotic strategies and early cranial nerve monitoring.

Keywords

Diabetes mellitus (DM), otitis externa (OE), necrotizing otitis externa (NOE), Pseudomonas, pus

Citation

Nishad et al. Bioinformation 22(4): 2143-2146 (2026)

Edited by

Vini Mehta

ISSN

0973-2063

Publisher

Biomedical Informatics

License

This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. This is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.