Complications of Chronic Otitis Media

Abstract

Medical records of 17 patients were reviewed to investigate the complications of chronic otitis media (COM). All complications were seen in acute exacerbations of the disease and most of them (n=15) were in patients having COM with cholesteatoma. There were 3 patients with double complications with a total number of 20 complications; 14 (70%) being intratemporal and 6 (30%) intracranial. The most frequent intratemporal and intracranial complications were facial paralysis (6 cases) and brain abscess (3 cases) respectively. Radical mastoidectomy was performed in ears with cholesteatoma and in cases of intracranial complications the operation was extended with appropriate interventions if required. Simple mastoidectomy was found to be sufficient in two cases without cholesteatoma, one with facial paralysis and the other with mastoiditis. There was no mortality and treatment associated morbidity in our series. Disease related morbidity rate was 17.65%, with two cases of permanent facial paralysis and one case of abducent nerve paralysis in a patient with lateral sinus thrombosis.

Keywords

• chronic otitis media
• complication
• cholesteatoma
• extracranial
• intracranial
• intratemporal.