Intracranial complications of cholesteatomatous chronic osteitic otitis media

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic Osteitic Cholesteatomatous Otitis Media is the sustained, insidious and destructive inflammation of the mucoperiosteum that covers the eardrum, Eustachian tube, cells and mastoid antrum, characterized by the formation of a tumor called cholesteatoma, whose enzymes such as hyaluronic acid stimulate to osteoclasts producing osteolysis, destruction of the ossicular chain and the temporal bone.

Objective: Identify intracranial complications in the course of ear diseases.

Methods: Descriptive, cross-sectional study, in the period between 2012 and 2022 at the "San Miguel del Padrón" Pediatric Teaching Hospital and "Centro Habana" of 5 patients diagnosed with Cholesteatomatous Chronic Osteitic Otitis Media and intracranial complications.

Results: Of a total of 340 patients operated on for cholesteatomatous chronic osteoitic otitis media, 17 patients presented different types of complications, which represented 3.2 % of patients; of these cases, 5 patients (1.5 %) had intracranial complications.

Conclusions: Early diagnosis of complications that appear in chronic ear diseases is important, because they endanger the patient's life, this is achieved by considering the evolution of said disease and the time of appearance of symptoms of said complications, which coincides with the greatest activity of the otic disease.