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Ear Squeeze (Ear Pain)

Dealing with Middle Ear BarotraumaMy husband and I just returned from a four-day dive trip. We made four dives per day, all multilevel, in Saipan. After the second day of diving, my husband had problems clearing and complained of pain in his ears. He also said he felt as if he had two pillows over his ears and complained of trouble with his balance and a constant buzzing sound. He saw an ear, nose and throat specialist after flying home. The doctor found an excess of mucus behind the eardrum that had begun to harden. He then made a small incision in my husband's eardrum to help remove the mucus (which had turned black). He expressed amazement that my husband had experienced no problem flying and said my husband should not dive for the next six months and then not dive so deep in the future.

These symptoms are consistent with middle-ear barotrauma, which is associated with the inability to equalize the middle-ear air space when diving. This is usually due to some type of eustachian tube dysfunction and most commonly caused by a problem like a recent cold, allergies or any type of irritation which inflames the mucus membrane and causes swelling and mucus discharge. The pain, muffled hearing or buzzing sounds, and the difficulty with balance can all be caused by pressure, and in this case, a fluid buildup in the middle-ear air space.

In your husband's case, it seems the barotrauma was sufficient to cause bleeding into the middle ear - this is why the mucus appeared black. The constant pressure exerted on the tiny bony structures and delicate internal membranes of the inner ear is what produced your husband's symptoms. This sounds as though he had a fairly serious barotrauma and was fortunate he didn't rupture his eardrum or one of the internal membranes of the ear - which could result in a decreased or permanent loss of hearing. The small incision in the eardrum, or myringotomy, may help to drain the ear of excess mucus and provide an opening to ambient air, which can help dry out the middle ear. If the ear was full of blood and other tissue fluids during the flight, an increase in symptoms would not have necessarily occurred, since the lowered pressure in the aircraft cabin would have been transmitted through the fluid-filled middle ear chamber.

The ability to clear mucus from the nasal passages is important, but it will not necessarily prevent middle-ear or sinus barotrauma. The safest approach to preventing middle-ear or sinus barotrauma is to avoid any discomfort in these air spaces. Once you have gone beyond discomfort to experiencing pain, you may have already drawn fluid into these spaces. This can have immediate consequences, like blocking the passage of air back out of the air space. Depending on the severity of the injury, six months is not too long to wait before diving again. In fact, such injuries may keep a diver from diving again if the eustachian tube or the structures of the middle ear have been damaged permanently. Since only time will tell, another complete examination is advisable for your husband, and it should probably include a hearing test.