Intracranial complications as a manifestation of clinical onset in a patient with prolonged insidious evolution of ear pathology

Abstract

Infectious processes and ear cholesteatoma may have prolonged, insidious evolution (for years), leading in some cases to life threatening intracranial complications and/or severe neurologic risk (1). The pathways for spreading the infection to the intracranial structures are: directly by bone erosion, by blood or by preformed anatomical spaces (2). The cases in which the insidious middle ear and mastoid pathology is revealed directly by the manifestations of intracranial complications require unhesitating interdisciplinary therapeutic approach through collaboration between ENT, neurology, neurosurgery, radiology and infectious diseases (1). We present the case of a 58 years old patient who presented complex neurological deficits as a way of clinical onset for an insidious suppurative middle ear and mastoid pathology.

Keywords

• middle ear and mastoid suppuration
• cholesteatoma
• intracranial complications
• neurological defi cits