Doctors remove live worm from man's ear sans surgery

kolkata: The doctors at the ENT department of the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) removed a centipede alive from inside the ear of a middle-aged man without any operation.

Md Aftab, a resident of Jorasanko area, rushed to the outpatient department of the ENT department on Friday as he felt pain inside his ear. The 48-year-old Aftab had been experienced excruciating pain since Friday morning. When the doctors at the ENT department examined the patient with an autoscope, they found something was moving inside the patient's ear. The doctors were confident that some insect might have entered.

The patient told the doctors that he left his house in the morning to go to his workplace. On the way, he parked the motorcycle at a place and put his helmet on the bike. When he wore the helmet, he realised something entered into his ear.

He started feeling pain in his ear and he rushed to the outpatient department of the ENT without wasting time. The doctors decided not to use any instrument to extract the insect as it could cause some damage inside the ear. They poured sterile water through a syringe and the centipede came out of his ear.

Dr Diptangshu Mukherjee, a senior doctor of the hospital, said that it could have caused damage if they had used any instrument. The insect could bite the membrane inside the ear. Some more damage could have been done inside the ear. As the sterile water was administered inside the ear, the centipede felt irritation and it came out.

The doctors are of opinion that no major damages have taken place inside his ear. As the insect moved inside the ear, it could have caused some minor damages which could easily be healed through medicines.

There will be no harm to his hearing capabilities, doctors told the patient. The insect could have caused more damage, if it had stayed inside the ear for long.