Course: Mastoiditis in a Patient With Seizures
CME Credits: 1.00
Released: 2023-08-10
A 64-year-old man with a 2-year history of seizure disorder presented to the emergency department (ED) at an outside hospital with breakthrough seizures. One month prior to his ED visit, he had been treated with oral antibiotics when he presented to an urgent care center with left-sided otorrhea, otalgia, and hearing loss. In the ED, he denied headaches, fever, otalgia, otorrhea, or hearing loss. Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain with contrast showed diffuse enhancement and possible coalescence in the left mastoid process with adjacent dural enhancement and sigmoid sinus occlusion. He received intravenous vancomycin and cefepime and was started on a heparin drip before being transferred to our facility. On presentation at our facility, the patient appeared well with normal vital signs. There was no periauricular swelling or erythema. Otoscopic examination showed no inflammation of the external auditory canals, and the tympanic membranes were translucent without evidence of retraction or effusion. Computed tomographic venogram confirmed occlusion of the left transverse and sigmoid sinuses, and computed tomography of the temporal bone showed coalescence of mastoid air cells with erosion into the sigmoid sinus. Mastoidectomy was performed for biopsy and culture specimens. Histologic findings from the specimens demonstrated cells with oval nuclei and abundant cytoplasm arranged in syncytial clusters with occasional whorls, pseudoinclusions, and psammomatous calcifications (, A). Immunohistochemical stains were positive for epithelial membrane antigen (EMA) and vimentin (, B).
Educational Objective
Based on this clinical scenario and the accompanying image, understand how to arrive at a correct diagnosis.
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