[Endocranial complications in otitis media: what you need to remember]

Thanks to the potency of antibiotics, life-threatening complications of otitis media are rare. In many cases, however, the symptomatology is veiled, and the course of the disease tends to be protracted. Secondary symptoms may preponderate and often mask those associated with the ear itself. If a case of otitis media fails to clear up, or mastoiditis develops, or sensorineural deafness, vertigo, headaches, seizures, or meningism occur, the possibility of an otogenous complication must immediately be considered and the patient submitted to diagnostic imaging without delay, so as to ensure early surgical treatment of a possible lesion in the ear.