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TUESDAY, Feb. 24, 2004
"The APP supports using sterile disposable equipment, which
is not what ear stud guns are," she says. "Stud guns cannot
be sterilized, and are not appropriate for either an ear lobe
or cartilage piercing."
Having your upper ear pierced is nothing
like getting your ear lobe pierced. The big difference is that
your upper ear is made of cartilage, which is a soft, bone-like
material, unlike your ear lobe, which is soft tissue. Because
cartilage heals differently than soft tissue, it's riskier
to have your upper ear pierced, Angel says.
In a paper published
in the Feb. 25 issue of the Journal of the American Medical
Association, researchers report on seven cases of Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, a bacterial infection caused by upper ear piercing
at a jewelry kiosk in an Oregon mall.
"People who were going
into this shop to get their ears pierced were coming out not
only with their ears pierced but with Pseudomonas aeruginosa
infection as well," says lead researcher William E. Keene,
an epidemiologist at the Oregon Department of Human Services.
Of 118 people who had their ears pierced from August to September
2000, there were seven confirmed cases of infection. And several
of the patients ended up with a visibly deformed ear, Keene
says.
This episode confirmed that cartilage piercing is more
dangerous than ear lobe piercing, Keene says. "Ear piercing
in its own small way is an invasive procedure, and infection
control is important," he says.
Piercing guns are prohibited
for piercing anything but ear lobes in Oregon and several other
states, Keene says. In addition, most of the kiosk employees
had little or no training, he adds.
Keene says some workers
sprayed the gun and the sterile stud with a commercial disinfectant.
The researchers found bacteria growing in the disinfectant,
he notes.
Another problem was that doctors misdiagnosed the
problem in some of the patients. They treated the infection
like a regular skin infection, and gave the patients the wrong
antibiotic, the study says.
Keene believes the problem isn't
confined to this one outbreak or to the 40 or 50 people in
Oregon who get infected each year. Based on the number of infections
in Oregon, he speculates that several thousand people each
year in the United States get Pseudomonas aeruginosa infection
from ear piercing.
He also warns that in some people, the infection
can affect the whole body, leading to a potentially fatal infection
of the bloodstream called sepsis.
"If you want to have your
upper ear pierced, you should try to seek out a place where
they are knowledgeable about infection control," Keene advises. "But
you are at the mercy of the operators when you go into one
of these places."
You should pay careful attention to the after-care
instructions piercers give you and try to follow them, Keene
says. "With cartilage infections, the wound may not heal for
months, and during that time you're at risk for infection.
If infection does develop, get medical attention, and don't
assume it's a minor problem that will go away by itself," he
stresses.
If you want your ear or any other body part pierced,
Angel recommends looking at the APP Web site to find a piercer. "APP
piercers hold up a very high standard of hygiene and safety," she
says. She also believes that all piercing should be regulated
by states.
Myrna Armstrong, a professor at Texas Tech University
Health Sciences Center School of Nursing, says health experts
have been aware of the link between piercings and infections
for years. She has been working with body piercing since 1995.
Stud guns, she adds, can't be adequately sterilized or decontaminated. "This
paper confirms that there really is a problem."
If you are
set on getting your ear pierced, avoid shopping malls and kiosks,
Armstrong says. Find an experienced body piercer who understands
sterile techniques, she adds.
Atlanta Journal Constitution
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