Pseudomastoiditis in Lateral Sinus Thrombosis: A Rare Presentation with Review of Literature

Abstract

Lateral sinus thrombosis due to mastoiditis, is now a relic of the past. Gone are the days when septic lateral sinus thrombosis was a common complication of unsafe suppurative otitis media. In the present era, the neurologists more commonly see cortical venous thrombosis with lateral sinus thrombosis. This entity has been termed as non-septic lateral sinus thrombosis in literature. The incidence is found to be more in females due to the use of oral contraceptives (Rosen and Scher in Laryngoscope 107(5):680–683, 1). In this manuscript, we report a series of three cases of non-septic lateral sinus thrombosis with mastoiditis, seen in a span of 1 month, which is uncommon. All the patients presented to the neurologist with intractable headache and lateral sinus thrombosis with mastoiditis, was detected by magnetic resonance imaging and magnetic resonance venogram. All the three patients were males and had involvement of the right mastoid in magnetic resonance imaging pictures. We have reviewed the literature and discussed about the etiopathogenesis, diagnostic criteria and management.