
What Causes Bleeding From Ears Along With Terrible Headache?

My husband had a terrible headache this morning and it was accompanied by bleeding in his ear. It bled for several hours before stopping. We are not sure what to do, if anything, as they symptoms have subsided.
Get ENT evaluation for structural lesion of the ear
Detailed Answer:
Good evening. I am an adult neurologist and headache specialist from XXXXXXX OH.
I must admit that in all my years as headache doctor, I've never had a patient with primary headaches accompanied by what could be referred technically as OTORRHAGIA. You've given few details on the bleeding itself whether it was profuse, or trickling, was there ear pain as well? Did you or anybody else attempt to use a flashlight to see anything that could've been on the outer wall of the ear canal from where the bleeding was coming? Was it bright red blood or darker? And the headaches....does your husband get headaches that are severe...even if only occasionally or was this is a completely unique experience for him? Is your husband a known hypertensive, smoker, heavy drinker of alcohol? Is he on blood thinner?
Was there nausea, vomiting, vertigo, ringing in the affected ear, throbbing? If you'd give more detail I may understand more fully what could've happened.
Definitely, my recommendation at this point if symptoms have subsided would be to seek out an ENT specialist who can do a full examination of that ear. Something structural must've have been the source of the bleeding. Question is whether it was from the outer canal or from the middle ear which then, either perforated the eardrum or seeped through. Is there an aneurysm in what is known as the IAC or Internal Auditory Canal? For this question to be answered he will need an a high resolution MRI with gadolinium contrast of the IAC looking at the whole compartment for fistulas, AVM's, and other types of vascular anomalies.
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All the best.
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