Bilateral Obliterative External Otitis in the Context of Chronic Iron Deficiency—Report of Two Cases

Abstract

Plummer-Vinson syndrome is a rare disorder consisting of a constellation of signs and symptoms related to a chronic iron deficiency state. Affected patients usually present with dysphagia secondary to esophageal hypomotility or web formation, oral manifestations such as glossitis, stomatitis, and cheilitis, and chronic sideropenic anemia. In this report, we present two cases where, in addition to these diseasedefining features, otologic symptoms were also found. Chronic stenosing external otitis with auditory canal web formation can represent, in this context, the manifestation of an underlying systemic cause and may be triggered by the same etiopathogenic factors that lead to esophageal dysfunction and web formation. As a result, a new perspective on the eponym of Plummer-Vinson disease is presented highlighting the wide and variable spectrum of head and neck manifestations of iron deficiency, a common but frequently overlooked medical condition.