BACKGROUND: Study aimed to ole of surgery along with antimicrobials to improve clinical outcomes in treating refractory cases of skull base osteomyelitis (SBO).
METHODS: A prospective observational study in a tertiary care centre with 70 SBO patients meeting eligibility criteria. The study population comprised 35 patients refractory to systemic antimicrobials of at least 4 weeks duration who later underwent surgery in addition to medication (surgical group). They were compared with a medical group that responded to medications alone. The outcome variables studied were the resolution of clinical features (pain, discharge, radiology, and inflammatory markers), culture yield, and total duration of treatment.
RESULTS: According to our study, relief of pain was faster in the surgical group (1.66 against 4.57 months) with statistical significance (p < 0.001). Relief of symptoms (p < 0.001), radiological improvement (p = 0.001), and normalising of inflammatory markers (p < 0.001) were better in the surgical group than in the medical group. The duration of treatment was an average of 9.2 months in the surgical group compared to 11.3 months in the medical group (p = 0.019). Microbial culture from deep tissue sampling was positive in 24 surgical patients (68.57%).
CONCLUSIONS: The treatment response in selected patients of refractory SBO who underwent surgery along with antimicrobials was better than the group who responded to antimicrobials alone. Surgery provided higher microbial yield resulting in culture-specific antimicrobials. The surgical group observed faster relief of symptoms, reduced hospital stay, and total treatment duration.

Skull base osteomyelitis is a rare and life-threatening infection of the skull base, commonly seen in elderly diabetic patients as a result of otogenic or paranasal infection. The diagnosis is based on a series of arguments, including a high clinical suspicion, imaging findings, negative biopsies for malignancy, and microbiological isolation. Complications, including abscess formation and vascular involvement, mandate a multidisciplinary treatment approach, primarily involving broad-spectrum antibiotics and surgical debridement, but the prognosis is usually poor. Herein, we describe the case of a 55-year-old male, who 15 years prior, underwent radiation therapy for nasopharyngeal carcinoma. He presented with an infection of the skull base with extensive bone erosion accompanied by an uncommon complication; an intra clival abscess. Despite aggressive antibiotic therapy, the patient ultimately succumbed to septic shock.

1. To study the various clinical presentations, microbiological and radiological profiles in patients of skull base osteomyelitis, to know about the underlying comorbidities or immunocompromised status and its relation to the disease and its management. 2. To study the effect of long term intravenous antimicrobial therapy with respect to clinical outcomes and radiological improvement and to study the long term outcomes of the treatment. This is an observational prospective and retrospective study. Thirty adult patients who were diagnosed with skull base osteomyelitis by clinical/microbiological and or radiological features were treated with long term intravenous antibiotics according to pus culture and s for 6-8 weeks and they were followed up for 6 months. Clinical improvement in symptoms and signs, radiological imaging features and pain score were assessed after 3 and 6 months. We noticed in our study that skull base osteomyelitis are more common in older patients with male predominance. Presenting symptoms include ear discharge, otalgia, hearing, cranial nerve palsy. Immunocompromised state, mainly Diabetes mellitus is closely associated with skull base osteomyelitis. Majority of patients showed Pseudomonas related species on pus culture and sensitivity. All the patients showed temporal bone involvement in CT and MRI. Other bones involved were shenoid, clivus and occipital bone. Majority showed good clinical response to intravenous ceftazidime, combination of piperacillin and tazobactum, followed by combination of piptaz and Ciprofloxacin. Treatment duration was 6-8 weeks. All patients showed clinical improvement in symptoms and relief in pain after 3 and 6 months. Skull base osteomyelitis is a rare condition, most commonly seen in elderly patients with diabetes mellitus and or other immunocompromised condition. Pseudomonas related species are the major causes of skull base osteomyelitis. Long term pus culture and sensitivity bases intravenous antibiotic therapy is the main stay of treatment.

BACKGROUND: Skull base osteomyelitis (SBO) is an uncommon disease with substantial morbidity and mortality.
OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to characterize clinical features, outcomes, and complications of SBO. We also looked at differences in clinical profile in otogenic and non-otogenic SBO.
METHODS: This is a single-center retrospective observational study. Patients aged more than 15 years of age with clinical and radiological diagnosis of SBO admitted in general medicine department in a teaching hospital in South India from March 2006 to February 2018 were recruited.
RESULTS: A total of 41 patients with SBO were identified and included. Mean age was 56.9 ± 10.7 years. In all, 90% of patients (37/41) had diabetes mellitus and 29% (12/41) had recent head/neck surgery. Only 19% (8/41) needed ICU care, and mortality was 21% (9/41). Most common symptom was headache seen in 73% (30/41) of patients. Majority, 61% (25/41), had otogenic infections. Otogenic infections were associated with longer duration of diabetes mellitus (mean = 11.5 vs. 5 years, P = 0.01), higher creatinine levels (mean = 1.66 vs. 0.9 mg/dL, P = 0.014, odds ratio [OR] = 3.8), and higher incidence of cranial nerve palsy (92% vs. 56%; OR = 8.9) compared to non-otogenic SBO. Cranial nerve palsy (78%), meningitis (63%), and cerebral venous thrombosis (43%) were frequent complications of SBO in this study. The causative organisms for SBO in our cohort was bacterial in 60% (15/25) and fungal in 40% (10/25) of the patients. Surgical debridement for source control was done in 54% of patients (22/41) and was associated with survival at discharge (P = 0.001).
CONCLUSIONS: Bacterial infections are the most common cause of SBO. Otogenic SBO is associated with longer duration of diabetes mellitus and higher incidence of cranial nerve palsy. Therapeutic surgical debridement plays an important role in treatment of SBO and is associated with improved survival.