[Subacute and chronic mastoiditis in the elderly: report on 10 cases including 5 with a Bell's palsy complication (author's transl)].

Ten elderly patients with subacute or chronic mastoiditis, including 5 with a complication Bell's palsy, were treated. 1) mastoid infections in elderly patients can present the typical characteristics as seen in younger subjects, this being the case in 4 of the 10 cases. 2) The findings in the other 6 patients confirmed facts, that are known or suspected, relating to the sometimes extremely serious and rapidly progressive nature of the affection, due to almost total lack of defences of the organism in elderly patients, often also diabetic, where the causal germ was invariably pyocanic. 3) In 3 cases, after removal of large amounts of wax with great difficulty, there was the very rapid development of a true malignant otitis externa with a Bell's palsy, and extensive bone involvement extending well beyond the region of the tympanic cavity.