Unusual extracranial complications of otitis media in a young HIV patient: retropharyngeal and Mouret's abscess.

ABSTRACT

Since the introduction of antibiotic therapy, the incidence of intra- and extracranial suppurative complication of acute and chronic purulent otitis media has sharply decreased. In particular, reports of laterocervical abscesses secondary to this disorder are quite rare, not more than twenty cases of Bezold's or Mouret's abscesses having been reported in the literature during the last ten years. The authors present a case of retropharyngeal and Mouret's abscess developed as a consequence of acute purulent otitis media in a young Aids patient. True otologic manifestations of Aids are rare while the incidental association of otologic disease with Aids is more common. The development of complication in the present case is favoured by the patients severe immunodepression.