[Progressive necrotizing otitis externa in an elderly diabetic with cranial nerve paralysis].

On the basis of an own observation the rare clinical picture of an external otitis with pareses of the brain nerves is casuistically described. Up to now it was observed only in elder persons with diabetes mellitus. The pathogenic agent is always Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The inflammatory process, issuing from the external auditory passage and under circumvention of the tympanum, spreads to the skull base and according to the localisation causes adequate pareses of the brain nerves. Early operation and aimed antibiotic therapy is the therapy of choice.