title: Chronic Tuberculous Otomastoiditis: A Case Report.
abstract: Worldwide, tuberculosis is a widespread disease, with 8.7 million new cases occurring annually. Its etiologic agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, essentially causes pneumonia. However, this organism affects the middle ear in rare cases, accounting for 0.04-0.09% of all chronic middle ear otitis cases in Western countries. In this report, we describe the case of a young woman affected by tuberculosis of the middle ear. In our experience, empiric therapy was not beneficial. Adequate treatment was possible only after obtaining a specific diagnosis through a difficult process requiring surgical sampling for culture examination. We consider surgical sampling to be mandatory in all cases of chronic otitis media that do not respond to prolonged systemic and local therapies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ear Nose Throat Head Audiology and Phoniatric Unit, University Hospital of Pisa, Pisa, Italy. l.bruschini@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bruschini
authors.forename: Annalisa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ciabotti
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Berrettini
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008417:Mastoiditis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000628:therapy; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000628:therapy; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy*