External ear canal exostosis and aquatic sports

Many reports suppose that the development of aural exostosis depends on the action of an irritative stimulus like frequent and repeated cold water contact. This survey studies the incidence of this lesion in a group of 433 athletes practicing aquatic sports on a highly competitive level. Among these, water activities like sailing and deep-sea diving, which up to now were never considered, were also studied. 32 exostoses were found to affect 12 subjects monolaterally and 20 subjects bilaterally. Not one of a control group of 476 athletes was found to be affected by aural exostosis. For each athlete in this study the following parameters are considered: age and sex, type of sport, total amount of hours spent in water contact, aural pathology history and otoscopic findings. The authors suggest the existence of facilitating factors other than total water contact time, as shown by the absence of a precise correlation between this parameter and the presence of the aural hyperostotic lesion.