FRIDAY, Sept. 21, 2012 — When a 63-year-old man went to a hospital in Switzerland to report a buzzing in his ear, the staff got more than they bargained for when they looked inside. A tick was attached to his eardrum, and it possibly got there with the help of a friendly feline.
The man is fine now that the tick has been removed, according to a brief report in the Sept. 20 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. While it’s uncommon for ticks to make their way into the ear canal, emergency physicians say insects do make appearances in this fragile orifice.
