Demography, types, outcome and relationship of surgically treated intracranial suppuration complicating chronic suppurative otitis media and bacterial rhinosinusitis

INTRODUCTION: Surgically treated intracranial suppurations (ICS) are uncommon, life-threatening neurosurgical emergencies. They can result from complication of chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) and bacterial rhinosinusitis (BRS). The objective of this study was to know the frequency of BRS and CSOM and relate it to its rare complication of surgically treated ICS while also describing the demography, type and outcome of ICS that resulted from BRS and CSOM. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All patients that presented to the Otorhinolaryngological department and Neurosurgical unit of the same institution with clinical and radiological features of CSOM, BRS, and ICS were prospectively studied over a 5-year period. Patients were followed up for a minimum of 3 months. RESULTS: Two thousand, two hundred and seventy-nine patients presented during the 5-year study period. Of all these patients, 1511 had CSOM (66.3%) and 768 (33.7%) presented with features of BRS. Eleven (0.73%) had ICS complicating their CSOM while 8 (1.04%) cases of surgically treated ICS followed BRS. Bacterial rhinosinusitis was not more likely to lead to ICS (P = 0.4348). The Odds ratio (OR) of a child ≤ 18 years of age with CSOM developing ICS was 5.24 (95% Confidence interval 1.13-24.34; P = 0.0345), while it was 7.60 (95% Confidence interval 1.52-37.97; P = 0.0134) for children with BRS. CONCLUSIONS: The most common type of ICS complicating CSOM and BRS was brain abscess and subdural empyema, respectively. Children are more prone to develop surgical ICS following CSOM and BRS. The proportion of males that had ICS was higher in both CSOM and BRS patients. Optimal outcome is achieved in patients that presented with GCS of 13 and above.