Glue Ear' - Another Disease with High Prevalence in Brachycephalic Dogs

Introduction
„Glue ear“, „Otitis media with effusion“ (OME)‚ and „Primary secretory otitis media“ (PSOM) are all different names for one and the same condition, that has first been described for the Cavalier King Charles Spaniel (CKCS). Described symptoms include head and neck pain and neurological symptoms, but discrimination from symptoms caused by Syringohydromyelia is impossible without diagnostic imaging. Many asymptomatic dogs on the other hand show OME as a coincidental finding on MRI/CT scans. The brachycephalic head conformation is thought to cause a dysfunction of the auditory tube, leading to negative pressure within the middle ear and causing effusion.

After seeing middle ear effusions in CT scans of French bulldogs and pugs, we hypothesized that brachycephalic dogs have a predisposition to develop OME.

Material and methods
All dogs that showed effusion on CT scans received a myringotomy and the effusion was analysed macroscopically, microscopically and bacteriologically.

Results
Prevalence in our study population was 22% (41 of 191 dogs), with French bulldogs being significantly overrepresented. 58% of the dogs had a bilateral effusion. None of the dogs had ever shown symptoms of otitis media.

Macroscopically, half the effusions were viscous- mucous, a quarter was serous and the remaining either greasy-pussy or sebaceous. Colours ranged from honey- like to white to brown. Microscopically, 60% of the effusions were rich in inflammatory cells, the remaining had few inflammatory cells and there were no effusions that were cell-free. 56% of the effusions were negative in the bacteriological examination, 37% were positive for Staph. pseudointermedius and the remaining were positive for physiologic flora, candida or ß- haemolysing Streptococcus sp.  [...]