Department of Paediatric Rheumatology, G Gaslini Institute, Italy.
Cephalalgia. 2013 Nov;33(15):1277-80. doi: 10.1177/0333102413493527. Epub 2013 Jun 25.
Red ear syndrome (RES), first described by Lance in 1996 in an adult series, may be primary or associated with headache syndromes, upper cervical disorders or vascular anomalies. Clinically the disease is characterised by recurrent episodes of reddening and burning pain in the auricle, usually elicited by different triggers. The prevalence of RES in the paediatric age group remains poorly understood. Several therapeutic approaches have been tried with heterogeneous clinical response.
We report a paediatric patient suffering from primary RES associated with debilitating cochleo-vestibular symptomatology causing severe discomfort. Three years after the disease onset, the patient also developed headache, with clinical features of migraine.
The temporal and spatial association could suggest shared pathogenetic features between neurological (cochleo-vestibular) and vascular (red and burning ear) symptomatology, likely related to trigeminal autonomic reflex activation, although further studies are required for full comprehension of RES pathogenesis.
红耳综合征（RES）于 1996 年由 Lance 在成人系列中首次描述，可能是原发性的，也可能与头痛综合征、上颈椎疾病或血管异常有关。临床上，该病的特征是耳郭反复出现发红和灼热疼痛，通常由不同的诱因引起。小儿年龄组中 RES 的患病率仍知之甚少。已经尝试了几种治疗方法，但临床反应具有异质性。
我们报告了一例患有原发性 RES 的儿科患者，该病与使人虚弱的耳蜗-前庭症状相关，导致严重不适。疾病发作三年后，患者还出现了头痛，具有偏头痛的临床特征。
时间和空间上的关联可能表明神经（耳蜗-前庭）和血管（红和灼热的耳朵）症状之间存在共同的发病机制特征，可能与三叉神经自主反射激活有关，但需要进一步研究以充分了解 RES 的发病机制。
