Current management of skull base osteomyelitis

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Current management of skull base osteomyelitis Via Current Opinion in Otolaryngology & Head and Neck Surgery - Current Issue Purpose of review Skull base osteomyelitis (SBO) is a life-threatening condition. Due to an aging and increasingly multimorbid population, clinicians are more often challenged with this disease. Yet, there is no consensus on the optimal diagnostic and follow-up management. This review should aid clinicians in decision-making for their patients. Recent findings Treatment-resistant otalgia or headache is suspicious of SBO. Pseudomonas aeruginosa remains the most common pathogen but clinicians are challenged with increasing rates of sterile or fungal cultures due to previously applied antibiotics/steroids. No single imaging modality is able to detect the full extent of the disease. Whereas functional nuclear imaging with gallium-67 or methylene diphosphonate-technetium-99m was once advocated, its actual benefit is questionable. Newer modalities such as fluoro-D-glucose-positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography, PET/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), or diffusion-weighted MRI seem to be promising in diagnosis and follow-up. Finding the causative pathogen is of utmost importance followed by long-term intravenous antibiotics until the disease has completely resolved. Surgery plays a minor role in treatment but can be helpful in selected cases. Summary The numerous challenges in SBO render management difficult, but with a clear work-up including regular clinical, laboratory and imaging examinations, outcome can be improved. View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.