Two Cases of Congenital Cochlear Dysplasia Associated with Meningitis

Abstract

Congenital dysplasia is one of the most important cause of a recurrence of pyogenic meningitis in children. It is difficult to preoperatively recognize congenital deformities of the labyrinth because of the varying degrees of hearing loss associated with these deformities. Radiographic examination, especially computed tomography, is useful for detecting any malformation of the osseous labyrinth and classifying these anomalies precisely. We report two cases of recurrent meningitis due to the development of a fistulous communication between the subarachnoid space and the middle ear cavity, classified as incomplete partition and common cavity type. In both cases, CSF-gusher occurred intraoperatively and the vestibule was then packed with an abundance of fibrofatty tissue in the deformed labyrinth. The patients have not demonstrated meningitis recurrence postoperatively.