Nontraumatic pneumocephalus and subarachnoid hemorrhage case: Brain abscess re-lated to complicated otitis media

Abstract

We wanted to present this case to emphasize that the diagnosis of complicated otitis media should be kept in mind in patients brought to the emergency department with headache, nau-sea, vomiting and confusion. Our case was a 30-year-old male patient. Although he was on oral treatment for otitis media, his symptoms persisted and headache started. CT scan of the brain performed in the emergen-cy room revealed no pathology. Five days later, pneumocephalus and surrounding subarach-noid hemorrhage were detected on brain CT imaging due to nausea, vomiting, headache and confusion. The patient was discharged on the 70th day after medical treatment. As seen in our case, it should be kept in mind that pneumocephalus in an unconscious patient may occur due to non-traumatic causes and may be a consequence of Complicated Otitis Me-dia and this situation should be investigated meticulously.

Keywords

• Intracranial abscess
• complications
• lateral sinus thrombosis
• suppurative otitis media
• temporal abscess

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