Mondini dysplasia as a cause for recurrent bacterial meningitis: an early diagnosis.

Mondini dysplasia is a rare but an important cause for recurrent pyogenic meningitis in children and requires a high index of clinical suspicion for early diagnosis. We present the case of a 7-year-old boy, who presented with 2 episodes of pyogenic meningitis within a span of 1 month. There was no obvious history of hearing abnormalities, but pure tone audiometry suggested profound mixed hearing loss in the left ear. High-resolution computed tomographic scan and magnetic resonance imaging of temporal bones confirmed the diagnosis of Mondini dysplasia in the left ear. Computed tomographic cisternography failed to demonstrate any obvious cerebrospinal fluid leak. The child was managed conservatively and has been asymptomatic since then. Thus, in our patient, Mondini dysplasia as a cause for recurrent pyogenic meningitis was diagnosed (early) during the second episode of meningitis. The need for an early diagnosis of Mondini dysplasia has been stressed in this report.