Malignant Otitis Externa: How to Monitor the Disease in Outcome Estimation?

Objective: Malignant otitis externa (MOE) is a serious disease affecting mainly the elderly diabetic patients that may result in mortality. It was aimed to evaluate the relationship between treatment responses and clinical and radiologic parameters among progress of the disease. Secondary aim was to present our clinical outcomes in the treatment of malignant otitis externa.

Method: This study was retrospectively conducted in a single center. Reviewed data included history of complaints, duration of symptoms, addition of hyperbaric oxygen treatment, presence of surgical intervention, pathological findings, culture positivity and microorganism, laboratory findings, scintigraphy, imaging modalities and outcome of disease.

Result: A total of 26 cases with malignant external otitis including 17 females (65.4%) and nine males (34.6%) patients were included in our study. Duration of symptoms before the initiation of treatment, and hyperbaric oxygen treatment did not positively influence the outcome. Inflammatory markers and Peleg staging significantly reflected the treatment response.

Conclusion: Close monitoring of inflammatory parameters is the key point in the prediction of prognosis. Planning the management and predicting the outcomes rely on proper radiological and clinical assessment of the extent of disease. In the assessment of MOE, universal scoring systems should be preferred for pooling the data in comparable manner.