Ear wax

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ceruminum plug
Dry ear wax
A cerumen plug blocks the external ear canal

Ear wax (medical term cerumen or cerumen ; from ancient Greek κήρωμα kēroma "wax ointment") is a yellow-brownish, greasy and bitter secretion of the ear wax glands ( glandulae ceruminosae , modified sweat glands ; apocrine, tubular canal ) of the external auditory canal .

function

Ear wax exists in all mammals . It moisturizes the skin in the ear canal and is used to remove dust , dirt , dead skin cells and foreign materials from the ear . It also contains lysozyme and other substances that fight bacteria and keep insects from entering the ear canal. If this protection is missing, for example through frequent washing or swimming, this can lead to severe ear pain.

Analytics and ingredients

Chromatographic separations by column chromatography or gas chromatography and subsequent mass spectrometry are used to determine the ingredients . In addition to hydrocarbons , squalene , wax esters , triglycerides , cholesterol , cholesterol esters , free fatty acids and hydroxy acids, other lipophilic components were found. Approx. 1000 substances have been identified so far. Research topics on earwax in 2011 also included peptide- based antimicrobial substances . Ear wax can also be used for forensic examinations for lipophilic drugs. 2019 created a Brazilian working group by headspace -Gaschromatographie coupled with mass spectrometry Cerumenogramme that allowed reliable differentiation between cancer patients and healthy subjects.

features

Besides bile, ear wax is one of the two highly bitter- tasting secretions of humans. It exists, genetically determined, in humans in dry form (triglycerides with a high proportion of saturated fatty acid residues ) and wet form (triglycerides with a high proportion of unsaturated fatty acid residues):

Example of a triglyceride with two unsaturated fatty acid residues ( green and red ) and one saturated fatty acid residue ( blue )

The wet type is yellowish, light brown or dark brown and oily-sticky. This type is genetically dominant over the dry variant (color whitish). The dry variant is very rare in Europe and Africa with less than 3 percent, whereas it is most widespread in East Asia with 80 to 95 percent. A medium-frequent distribution exists in South, Central and Asia Minor as well as on the Pacific islands, among the indigenous people of North America and the Inuit . The composition is controlled by the ABCC11 gene . Suspected associations between the different variants and the incidence of breast cancer were the subject of research in 2009 and 2011.

Risk of clogging of the ear canal

Classification according to ICD-10
H61.2 Ceruminum plug
ICD-10 online (WHO version 2019)

The cerumen can completely block the ear canal, among other things in the case of overproduction (ear wax plug, cerumen plug, cerumen obturans ) and cause sudden hearing loss . The plug must be removed by the family doctor or ear, nose and throat doctor using an ear spoon or suction or, if necessary, rinsed out with warm water. If this is not possible because the plug is too tight, a doctor can use a few drops of hydrogen peroxide at a concentration of 3% to dissolve the plug and then rinse it out.

Harmful cotton swabs

Ear wax on a cotton swab - removing the cerumen with a cotton swab is not recommended

Despite warnings , commercially available cotton swabs are still used by many people to supposedly remove wax from the ear canals. In doing so, however, the lard is pressed deeper into the ear, where it can harden into a wax plug, which under certain circumstances exerts pressure on the eardrum and can lead to hearing loss . It is believed that the movements of the stick cause a pleasant sensation because they stimulate the vagus nerve and thereby increase this malfunction. Instead, to clean the ear canal, it is sufficient to wash the ears with clear water, e.g. B. when showering or with an ear syringe to rinse. A plug that has already become solid must be removed by a doctor.

See also

Web links

Commons : Ear wax  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: ear wax  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pschyrembel . Medical dictionary. 257th edition. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-933203-04-X , p. 245 .
  2. ↑ K. Stránský, I. Valterová, E. Kofroňová and others: Non-polar lipid components of human cerumen. In: Lipids. Volume 46, No. 8, 2011, pp. 781-788. PMID 21547555 , doi: 10.1007 / s11745-011-3564-y .
  3. ↑ M. Schwaab, A. Gurr, A. Neumann, S. Dazert, A. Minovi: Human antimicrobial proteins in ear wax. In: European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases. In: Eur J Clin Microbiol Infect Dis. Volume 30, No. 8, August 2011, pp. 997-1004. PMID 21298458 , doi: 10.1007 / s10096-011-1185-2 .
  4. ↑ E. Shokry, JG Marques, PC Ragazzo, NZ Pereira Filho NRA: Earwax as to alternative specimen for forensic analysis. In: Forensic Toxicol. 35 (2), 2017, pp. 348–358. PMID 28912899 .
  5. ↑ Barbosa JMG, Pereira NZ, David LC, de Oliveira CG, Soares MFG, Avelino MAG, de Oliveira AE, Shokry E, Filho NRA: Cerumenogram: a new frontier in cancer diagnosis in humans. , Sci Rep. 2019 Aug 13; 9 (1): 11722, PMID 31409861
  6. ↑ Koh-ichiro Yoshiura, Akira Kinoshita1, Takafumi Ishida and others: A SNP in the ABCC11 gene is the determinant of human earwax type. In: Nature Genetics. No. 38, 2006, (Letter) pp. 324-330, doi: 10.1038 / ng1733 .
  7. ↑ T. Lang, C. Justenhoven, S. Winter, C. Baisch, U. Hamann, V. Harth, YD Ko, S. Rabstein, A. Spickenheuer, B. Pesch, T. Brüning, M. Schwab, H. Custom: The earwax-associated SNP c.538G> A (G180R) in ABCC11 is not associated with breast cancer risk in Europeans. In: Breast Cancer Res Treat. 129 (3), Oct 2011, pp. 993-999. PMID 21655989
  8. ↑ Y. Toyoda, A. Sakurai, Y. Mitani, M. Nakashima, K. Yoshiura, H. Nakagawa, Y. Sakai, I. Ota, A. Lezhava, Y. Hayashizaki, N. Niikawa, T. Ishikawa: Earwax , osmidrosis, and breast cancer: why does one SNP (538G> A) in the human ABC transporter ABCC11 gene determine earwax type? In: FASEB J. 23 (6), Jun 2009, pp. 2001-2013. PMID 19383836
  9. ↑ Esther Schimanski: History of the tympanoplasty . Dissertation. Ruhr University, Bochum 2005.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Vahle: How should one clean the ears? On: hno-vahle.de from November 13, 2011; Comment: Vahle - Reply August 11, 2013. Retrieved May 3, 2014.
  11. ↑ PL Wilson, RJ Roeser: Cerumen management: professional issues and techniques. In: Journal of the American Academy of Audiology. Volume 8, No. 6, December 1997, pp. 421-430. PMID 9433688
  12. ↑ AJ Clegg, E. Loveman, E. Gospodarevskaya et al .: The safety and effectiveness of different methods of earwax removal: a systematic review and economic evaluation. In: Health Technology Assessment. Volume 1, No. 28, June 2010, pp. 1–192, doi: 10.3310 / hta14280 .
  13. ↑ JG Fraser: The efficacy of wax solvents: in vitro studies and a clinical trial. In: The Journal of Laryngology and Otology. Volume 84, No. 10, October 1970, pp. 1055-1064. PMID 5476901 , doi: 10.1017 / s0022215100072856 .
  14. ↑ Cotton swabs for ear cleaning? on aerztekammer-bw.de