Abstract:Objective The study aimed to analyze the etiology, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment of cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea.Methods Clinical data of 17 patients with cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea were retrospectively analyzed. The 17 patients were admitted to the Department of Otolaryngology head and Neck Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanchang University since 2012. They were 15 adults and 2 children, 10 males and 7 females, age range from 4 to 85, 9 cases in right ear and 8 cases in left ear. Among the 17 cases, there were 4 cases of spontaneous cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea, 2 cases of inner ear malformation, 6 cases of head trauma, 3 cases of middle ear mastoid operation, and 2 cases of radiotherapy for head and neck tumor. Among them, subtotal resection of rock bone was performed in 7 cases, tympanum exploration and vestibular closure was performed in 2 cases, mastoid process incision and cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea repair was performed in 7 cases.Results One case accepted conservative treatment, 16 cases were repaired successfully once. The other 16 cases were repaired successfully, and no recurrence was found. There were16 patients followed up for more than 1 year and 1 patient for more than 3 months. Two patients had poor postoperative incision healing, which was cured by local dressing change, including 1 case ear canal incision and 1 case retroauricular incision.Conclusions Surgery was the main treatment of cerebrospinal fluid otorrhea. The key to a successful operation is to locate the fistula accurately. It is also very important for the repair of fistulas to treat the fistulas correctly, to prevent postoperative inflammation and to reduce intracranial pressure.
