ムンプス不顕性感染によりめまい,難聴をきたした3歳児の症例

抄録

We report the case of a young child suffering from vertigo and hearing loss caused by asymptomatic mumps.
A three-year-old boy showed loss of body balance and vomiting. There was no swelling of the parotid glands and he did not complain of hearing loss, but we found he had spontaneous nystagmus to the left. During the medical examination, he staggered to the right from the standing position. After ABR testing, we found abnormality of his right ear and the testing showed high indices of mumps IgM and IgG. CT findings suggested tympanitis in his left ear, but no such sign was seen in the right. As a result of these tests we diagnosed asymptomatic mumps causing dizziness and hearing loss. Four months after he became ill, we found his spontaneous nystagmus had disappeared, but after head shaking nystagmus testing, nystagmus to the left was still observed. Subsequently, we observed that the patient often ran in the opposite direction from which his name was called.
It is very rare for young children to complain of dizziness and vertigo. We should be aware that some children with hearing loss may not complain of symptoms. Physi-cians must also keep in mind that inner ear disorders can be caused by asymptomatic mumps. The number of mumps infections is on the increase. This disease is very hard to cure, so vaccination against mumps needs to be encouraged.