Mastoiditis

Injury	Disease	Nutrition	Poison

Symptoms	Surgery	Test	Special Topic

Mastoiditis - side view of head

Mastoiditis - redness and swelling behind ear

Mastoidectomy - series

Overview

Symptoms

Treatment

Prevention

Mastoiditis

Treatment:

Mastoiditis may be difficult to treat because it is difficult for medications to reach deep enough into the mastoid bone. It may require repeated or long-term treatment. Antibiotics by injection, then antibiotics by mouth are given to treat the infection.

Surgery to remove part of the bone and drain the mastoid (mastoidectomy) may be needed if antibiotic therapy is not successful. Surgical drainage of the middle ear through the eardrum (myringotomy) may be needed to treat the underlying middle ear infection.

Expectations (prognosis):

Mastoiditis is curable with treatment but may be hard to treat and may recur.

Complications:

recurrence
partial or complete hearing loss of the affected ear
destruction of the mastoid bone
facial paralysis
meningitis
spread of infection to the brain or throughout the body
epidural abscess

Calling your health care provider:

Call your health care provider if symptoms indicate mastoiditis.

Call for an appointment with your health care provider if a known ear infection does not respond to treatment or is followed by new symptoms, or if symptoms do not respond to treatment.

Review Date: 4/11/2005
Reviewed By: Kevin Fung, MD, MRCS(C), Department of Otolaryngology, Division of Head and Neck Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada. Review provided by VeriMed Healthcare Network.

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