Case Report: We report a case study of parotid squamous cell carcinoma in a 29-year-old male masquerading as an ear polyp.
Conclusion: Parotid gland primary squamous cell carcinoma is a rapidly advancing neoplasm which carries poor prognosis despite multimodality treatment. Diligent clinical and histopathological evaluation is imperative to discriminate this rare aggressive disease from the metastatic and other primary cancers of the parotid. A high index of suspicion is crucial in refractory aural polyps to arrive at early diagnosis.
METHODS: A case-control study was carried out among patients with CSOM (cases) and controls were those with no ear pathology. The presence of CSOM was made through a medical history and otoscopic examination. Allergen testing was done by the skin prick test.
RESULTS: In all 124 subjects were recruited in this study with equal number of the cases and controls. The commonest positive reaction in the skin prick test in both groups was to house dust mites. Among CSOM cases, half (50%) of them had an allergy to Blomia tropicalis and 48.4% to Dermatophagoides while in the control group, 27.4% to Dermatophagoides and 25.8% to B. tropicalis. There were significant associations between CSOM and allergy to B. tropicalis (p=0.005), Dermatophagoides (p=0.016) and Felis domesticus (p=0.040). The prevalence of allergy at 95% confidence interval (95%CI) in CSOM and control groups were demonstrated as 59.7% (95%CI: 47.5, 71.9) and 30.6 % (95%CI: 19.1, 42.1) respectively. There was a significant association between allergy and CSOM (p=0.001).
CONCLUSION: Indoor allergens are the most prevalent in our environment and therefore good control may difficult to achieve. The hypersensitivity states of the subject are likely to have a role in the pathogenesis of CSOM especially in the tropical countries where allergy occurs perennially.