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Auricular Seroma

Posted by julianned @julianned, May 6, 2022

My good friend has had these hard cysts in both of her ears on the cartilage. She has a fear of doctors but eventually saw a dermatologist, who said she needed to see an ENT asap. From what I understand the doctor told her it was Auricular Seroma and that she would need to go back every few days to get them drained. She was told that even if they drained, this could be a reoccurring issue. We were wondering if anyone has heard of this or gone through anything similar. She is in her early 30s.

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Mentor
Teresa, Volunteer Mentor | @hopeful33250 | May 7, 2022

Hello @julianned

Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect. How good of you to seek information on behalf of your friend. While we wait for others to respond to your question, I found an article on the NIH website. Here is the link, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24847161/.

After you read the article, you will see that this can be a reoccurring problem and that the aspiration of the cysts is the common way to treat this.

How is your friend feeling now that she has had this treatment?

REPLY
imallears | @imallears | May 7, 2022

@julianned

Hi,

This used to be called cauliflower ear. I remember boxers or wrestlers or anyone involved in contact sports having this condition. But I knew it occurred a lot in boxers because of the pounding that the head and ears took. Did your friend suffer any trauma to the head ? I wonder if that’s not the case could it be the result of an infection. It has to be drained periodically and without delay and it does reoccur. Boxers in the old days who didn’t get it treated became permanently disfigured and some lost their hearing.
It’s serious and I would advise your friend to get over her aversion to doctors.
They’re doing some experimental procedures today.

I had a male friend who had extensive surgery to his ear because of swelling.
Hadn’t seen him for awhile and part of his outer ear was removed. He never did specifically say what the cause was but he did not lose any hearing.

Don’t mean to scare you but it’s not to be taken lightly.

FL Mary

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