Acute mastoiditis in a newborn with aural atresia.

Acute mastoiditis in the newborn is a very rare disease. Herein we report a case of a 28-day-old child with right aural atresia and ipsilateral mastoiditis requiring mastoidectomy. To our knowledge, this is the youngest case reported in the literature. Issues on diagnosis and management of mastoiditis in cases of aural atresia are further discussed. Based on our experience and on previous reported cases we conclude that mastoiditis is difficult to diagnose in a child with aural atresia. Moreover, mastoidectomy may be necessary, although identification of the facial nerve and consequent treatment of the atresia are usually too difficult to perform simultaneously.

Acute mastoiditis complicated with bezold abscess, sigmoid sinus thrombosis and occipital osteomyelitis in a child.

Acute otitis media complications are relative rare since the introduction of antibiotics. Still many controversies exist on the diagnosis and treatment of some of them. In this report we describe a pediatric case of upper cervical abscess (bezold abscess), sigmoid sinus thrombosis and occipital osteomyelitis following mastoiditis, presenting with persistent fever and otorrhea. The patient responded well to intravenous antibiotics and wall-intact mastoidectomy. We discuss methods of early diagnosis and appropriate treatment options.