Diagnosis of tuberculous otitis media can be established when tubercle bacilli are detected in otorrhea or when characteristic pathlogical findings are obtained by a histopathological examination. However, none of our five cases was considered having tuberculous otitis media at the beginning. They included the case where tubercle bacilli were identified in bacteria detected from otorrhea during treatment, or where diagnosis of tuberculous otitis media was made by a histopathologic examination after operation or where diagnosis of nospecific otitis media was made by the histopathologic examination after operation despite tubercle bacilli having been detected from otorrhea several times.
Examinations to detect tubercle bacilli from otorrhea and histopathologic examinations are difficult to perform because of the amount of samples collected being very small. Where a case in which otorrhea does not stop has been encountered, however, it is important to perform those examinations repeatedly while keeping tuberculous otitis media in mind.
