A Case of Acute Serous Labyrinthitis Complicated by Chronic Otitis Media Showing Atypical Nystagmus Pattern / 대한평형의학회지

ABSTRACT

Serous or suppurative labyrinthitis is one of the intratemporal complications of acute or chronic otitis media. Labyrinthitis can occur by meningogenic or hematogenous infection. Major symptoms of labyrinthitis are vertigo and hearing loss. The disease progresses in two phases; serous labyrinthitis, so called toxic labyrinthitis, and suppurative labyrinthitis. If labyrinthitis treated at serous phase, hearing could be saved. But, if the disease progressed to suppurative phase, hearing loss is difficult to recover. Therefore it is very important to distinguish these two phases of labyrinthitis when treating the patient. In general, the direction of nystagmus during labyrinthitis is helpful sign to distinguish these two phases. We report here on an unusual case of acute serous labyrinthitis complicated with chronic otitis media showing atypical pattern with a review of the related literatures.