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Cythes Case Summary

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Mr. Cook is a 79-year-old male here today complaining of blisters on his head as well as blood in his left ear.
HPI
The patient tells me he started noticing symptoms on Sunday, August 16th. He said he started noticing some blisters along the left side of his face as well as his left ear started hurting and as he would scratch at it, he would see blood and discharge coming from it. He says that he typically does use Q-tips after the shower, but he does not think that he traumatized his ear. He has never had anything like this happen before. He has not really noticed any itching, but there is some discomfort. He describes it more of a discomfort, than a true pain. He has not had any fevers, chills, or body aches. There have been no …show more content…

Extraocular muscles are intact. Conjunctivae are without erythema. No drainage or discharge from the eyes. There is no involvement of the eyelid and the nearest lesion is approximately 1.5 to 2 cm lateral to the left eye. He does have multiple vesicular lesions, some of which he has rubbed and no longer have the vesicle and appear to be just almost shallow ulcerations. This extends along the temporal area, on the left side into the ear canal itself and I do see similar lesions in the ear. Again, many of which have been ruptured and there is dried blood all through the canal as well. There is no other abnormality noted. There is no wax. I can see the TM. It does not appear to be involved. There is no involvement behind the ear. No pain at the mastoid process. Mucous membranes are moist. There is no mucosal lesions. No …show more content…

I did talk with him about my concern regarding the lesions that are close to the eye and I felt it was very important that he be seen by ophthalmology and this was arranged for him today. He will keep that appointment this afternoon over at Eyesight. I talked about antiviral therapy as he is within a couple days of the onset. He was written for Valtrex 1000 mg three times daily for seven days. In addition, prednisone 10 mg tablets, 40 mg for two days, then 20 mg for two days, then 10 mg for two days. I reviewed the case with Brett Rankin, MD, as I was concerned with the lesions in the ear and my concerns regarding the possibility of this leading to a Ramsay Hunt syndrome. Currently as his hearing is unchanged and there is no facial paralysis issues, I am hoping that will not be worry with the steroids and the antiviral therapy starting. Dr. Rankin talked about doing a hearing evaluation to ensure there is no asymmetry between his two ears, even though the patient perceived that his hearing was okay and that will be arranged for him. He knows he will be contacted by Dr. Rankin's office for that. He knows to contact me if his symptoms worsen in any way. We did talk about the potential complications and he is aware of what to be looking for. A viral culture was performed to confirm the diagnoses, but he understands that may take time to return the results to us. He will monitor symptoms in the

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