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• Discuss most common ear, nose and throat (ENT) problems and latest treatment methods. • Dubai Hospital’s hearing and balance clinic is the only fully-equipped clinic in the UAE. • The ENT department at Dubai Hospital is the only clinic in Dubai to have specialised machines to diagnose Tinnitus (ringing in the ear) problem.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates, September, 2014: With children going back to school, Dubai Health Authority(DHA) doctors disseminated today during the live smart clinic ways to protect children from developing ear, nose and throat( ENT) infections.
The doctors also discussed the new services provided at the DHA hospital’s ENT departments.
Dr Jamal Kassouma, ENT Consultant at Dubai Hospital, said: “One of the best ways for all parents to ensure that children do not pick up infections at school is to make sure they do not send their sick child to school to avoid rapid spread of infections especially among young children. Even schools should refuse to accept sick children and ask parents to take their sick kids home. Sending sick children to school is one of the main reasons school children face recurrent upper respiratory tract infections because the virus spreads fast due to close contact among children who spend several hours in the same environment.” He said it is important for children who swim to take certain precautions to avoid upper respiratory tract infections. “Parents should not take their children out of swimming pools and straight into the air-conditioned environment. Any sudden change in the weather from warm and vice versa, can affect the immunity of the respiratory track and predispose the person to infections.” He also added that post-swimming children should take a shower with lukewarm water and not hot or cold water. “Kids with eardrum perforation should avoid swimming without ear protection.”
He advised parents not to take upper respiratory tract infections lightly and that if the condition persists, they should visit an ENT specialist. “ If the patient has fever for more than one day, a sore throat, headache, earache, facial pain and/or thick discharge from the nose they should visit an ENT specialist as these are symptoms of infections.” He highlighted that one of the common mistakes parents make is giving the child antibiotics without seeing the doctor first. “Common cold is a virus and does not require any treatment. However, due to common cold if other symptoms occur, which causes a secondary bacterial infection; we may need to provide antibiotics. Often parents give their children antibiotics when the child only has a cold and that too without consulting the doctor. This must be completely avoided. A simple runny nose without other symptoms can be treated by lots of rest and plenty of fluids.” He said one of the common ENT problems in children and adults in this region is allergic rhinitis which is an allergic inflammation of the nasal airways. It occurs due to allergens, such as pollen, house dust-mites, environmental pollutants, or animal dander (particles of shed skin and hair).
The symptoms are sneezing, runny nose and nasal blockage but if it gets complicated it can trigger sinusitis, which causes facial pain.
He said allergic rhinitis can occur throughout the year or it can be seasonal. “Seasonal is normally due to pollen or grass. If it’s perineal it’s mainly due to house dust mites or air pollution.” He said the first line of treatment is avoidance. “ Avoid keeping carpets or rugs at home, do not keep soft toys and clean the AC filters once every six months and always put an air-tight cushion on the pillow.” He said children can be given antihistamine and nasal spray but it depends on the age of the child.
Another common problem among children, seen particularly in the winter months is tonsillitis.
Dr Kassouma, said: “If the child has a sore throat, refuses to eat and has fever, the child should be examined by an ENT doctor to see if he has tonsillitis or not. It is important that the child is not given antibiotics without consulting the doctor. “There are international guidelines that ENT specialists follow with regard to removal of tonsillitis. If the child has more than seven episodes of tonsillitis in one year or more than five times a year, over two years, or if the tonsils are significantly enlarged leading to breathing problems, the tonsillitis should be removed.”
Latest advances in treating common ENT problems: Specialized equipment/clinic only available in Dubai Hospital.
One of the most common ENT problems is Tinnitus. It means 'ringing' of sound within the human ear ('ringing of the ears') when no external sound is present.
The patient can have the perception of sound in one ear or both ears or in his head. Dr Mohammed Fawzy Specialist senior registrar, ENT department at Dubai Hospital, said: “Three out of ten patients face this problem. There is a high incidence of this problem within the community. The reason behind occurrence of Tinnitus is ear problem or problem around the ear.” Dr Fawzy, added: “The main problem we face is people come to us in the later stages when the condition is advanced. We urge patients with symptoms of Tinnitus to immediately visit an ENT specialist so that the problem can be diagnosed early on.”
He said there are several tests for diagnosis of the condition including hearing evaluation and the latest Tinnitus matching test, which is presently only available in Dubai Hospital. The Tinnitus matching test takes only 10 to 15 minutes and provides on-the-spot diagnosis. The hospital also has another machine which is only available at Dubai Hospital and helps record the sound heard by the patient. Dr Fawzy added that the third most common problem after headache and backache in outpatient clinics is imbalance and dizziness. “Approximately four out of ten people visit outpatient clinics complaining of dizziness and 60 per cent of these cases are due to ear problems.
“Positional vertigo is the most common type of dizziness problem in the UAE and after proper diagnosis it can actually be treated in a matter of minutes. The problem is misdiagnosis and therefore people suffering from this condition should visit a hearing and balance clinic, which is subspecialty of the ENT field.” The hearing and balance clinic at Dubai Hospital is the only clinic in the country to have certain specialized machines for diagnosis and management of patients with dizziness. “The machines include rotational dynamic chair which helps us exactly understand the type of dizziness.”
For more information on DHA’s ENT services, please contact 800 342.
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