What is an "allergic ear infection"?

What is an "allergic ear infection"?

Harold Kaiser (Practicing Allergist and Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of Minnesota Medical School) gives expert video advice on: How are insect allergies treated?; What are "food allergies"?; What are "hives"? and more...

Some patients who have allergies also get fluid in their ears, and it causes fluid behind their eardrums, which may cause blocked hearing, a feeling you're in an airplane or in the shower, and this may be related to intermittent Eustachian tube dysfunction. The Eustachian tube is the tube that runs from the ear to the nose, and helps to keep things in balance. So when you go up in an airplane it clears; when you go down swimming, it blocks up. In allergic rhinitis, or in allergic disease of the eyes, ears, nose and throat, this tube – this part of the ear – can become swollen. And if it's swollen, then you can get fluid blocked behind your ear. This is sometimes called an allergic ear problem, and treating the basic allergy will control that, rather than just treating the ear.