Otolaryngological problems associated with thrombocytopenia purpura in children.

Otolaryngological manifestations of 90 patients (of which 50 were under 16 years) with immune thrombocytopenia purpura (I.T.P.) appearing at the Pingdingshan Hematological Institute over 10 years have been studied. Among the sick children, epistaxis was the most common complaint (of which 60% responded to nasal packing), followed by gum, buccal, conjunctive, tongue, lips, eyelids, facial and throat bleeding, in this order. Severity and recurrence were correlated with the sick children's condition: the presence or absence of local trauma and infection, blood platelet level and capillary fragility, especially in acute I.T.P. Some therapeutic principles for these associated abnormalities are recommended. Other conditions included: hearing loss, vertigo, or dizziness, tinnitus, facial paralysis and so on. Our conclusion is that the role of immune responses may be important in the etiopathogenesis of these non-hemorrhagic abnormalities, and should not be ignored in treating the problems as result of I.T.P. In this paper, these immunological and pathological mechanisms implicated in the two problems described above are also discussed.