ABSTRACT
During the 5-year period 1999 - 2003; we treated 36 children with a clinical diagnosis of mastoiditis. Post-auricular tenderness; swelling or abscess was the presenting feature in all cases. Twenty of these children had acute mastoiditis; 12 had acute-onchronic mastoiditis and 4 had a post-auricular abscess and no signs of mastoiditis on mastoid exploration (pseudomastoiditis). No pathogenic organisms were cultured from 25of cases overall; but among those with positive culture Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus were the commonest organisms in the acute mastoiditis group and Proteus mirabilis was the commonest in the acute-on-chronic group. In the acute mastoiditis group (20 patients) only 1 patient was successfully treated with antibiotics; the rest requiring cortical mastoidectomy. In the acute-on-chronic mastoiditis group (12 patients) 9 children had cholesteatoma and underwent an open cavity procedure and the other 3; who underwent cortical mastoidectomy; all had positive histology/culture for tuberculosis