Rare case of a 3-year-old with skull base osteomyelitis: lessons to be learnt.

Skull base osteomyelitis (SBO) is a serious and rare condition most commonly seen in elderly diabetic or immunocompromised patients as a complication of otitis externa. We present the case of a previously healthy 3-year-old girl who presented to the paediatric emergency department with vomiting, fever, lethargy, headache and left-sided facial nerve palsy. The initial CT head revealed left-sided otitis media with otomastoiditis and she was managed with intravenous antibiotics and myringotomy with grommet insertion with initial improvement. Two weeks later she re-presented having deteriorated and a dedicated mastoid CT and temporal bone MRI showed SBO. She underwent urgent cortical mastoidectomy where microbiological analysis of the cultures and specimen grew She was subsequently treated with long-term antifungals and antibiotics, and eventually recovered with good effect. The diagnostic dilemma and the empirical treatment of such a rare case are discussed.