Sonographic diagnosis of acute mastoiditis and subsequent retroauricular abscess in a pediatric cochlear implant recipient: A case report

Abstract

When acute mastoiditis occurs in cochlear implant recipients, it can progress to subsequent retroauricular abscess due to the absence of the external mastoid cortex resulting from mastoidectomy performed for cochlear implantation. The management goal is to control infection while preserving the implanted device. A 2-year-old boy with cochlear implants developed acute mastoiditis and a subsequent retroauricular abscess. The patient underwent a surgical intervention based on the diagnosis made utilizing gray-scale and power Doppler sonography. This case illustrates the diagnostic usefulness of sonography in this rare situation. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Clin Ultrasound 45:515-519, 2017.

Diagnosing complications following cochlear implantation using transcutaneous ultrasound

“…In this regard, transcutaneous ultrasound is a valuable imaging modality that avoids radiation exposure and has been described for the diagnostic workup of haematoma around the CI and for detecting magnet dislocation [16][17][18]. However, the literature on the feasibility and reliability of ultrasound in other CI complications has so far been limited to a few case reports [13,19,20].…”

“…This imaging modality has been described in the diagnosis of haematoma around the CI and dislocation of the internal CI magnet [ 16 – 18 ]. However, data on the use of ultrasound in other complications are rare and consist of case reports only [ 13 , 19 , 20 ]. Therefore, the objective of this retrospective study was to investigate whether ultrasound is a helpful and reliable tool in the detection of complications after cochlear implantation.…”