Mastoiditis

doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521332866.149

VIII.87 - Mastoiditis

from Part VIII - Major Human Diseases Past and Present

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008

John Niparko and

Edited by

Kenneth F. Kiple: Affiliation:
Bowling Green State University, Ohio

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Summary

Infections of the middle ear and mastoid encompass a spectrum of potentially serious medical conditions and sequelae. Decreased hearing from ear infections may have a lifelong impact on speech, learning, and social and vocational development, causing these conditions to remain a major health concern. Because of the anatomic relationship of the middle ear and mastoid to the middle and posterior cranial compartments, life-threatening complications may occur.

Classification

Inflammatory diseases of the middle ear and mastoid are categorized according to the underlying disease process and location:

1. Acute suppurative otitis media (AOM) is characterized by obstruction of the eustachian tube, allowing the retention and suppuration of retained secretions. AOM is the medical term associated with, most commonly, the acute ear infection of childhood. Generally the course of this infection is self-limited, with or without medical treatment, and the retained infected secretions are discharged through either the eustachian tube or a ruptured tympanic membrane.

Acute coalescent mastoiditis can result from failure of these processes to evacuate the abscess. Coalescence of disease within the mastoid leads to pus under pressure and ultimately dissolution of surrounding bone. This condition may require urgent surgical evacuation because the infection is capable of spreading to local and regional structures.

3. Otitis media with effusion (OME) is an inflammatory condition of the middle ear in which serous or mucoid fluid accumulates. Both AOM and OME are precursor conditions to tympanic membrane retractions and perforations. Ongoing eustachian tube dysfunction predisposes to persistent retained secretions in the ear and recurrent acute attacks of otitis media. A small percentage of these patients develop a chronic tympanic membrane perforation which, in most cases, allows eventual aeration of the middle ear and mastoid air-cell spaces and resolution of the underlying disease process.

4. …

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge World History of Human Disease , pp. 865 - 871

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521332866.149 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 1993

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