Severe Daily Headache as an Uncommon Manifestation of Widespread Skull Base Osteomyelitis

Abstract

Temporal bone osteomyelitis has been recognized for decades as a complication of otitis externa, specifically in elderly patients with diabetes. A much less prevalent form is skull base osteomyelitis. We report a 70-year-old man with diabetes who presented to our outpatient clinic with severe chronic daily complaints of headache. The headache was located frontoparietally and kept him awake at night. Imaging (nonenhanced computed tomography [CT], magnetic resonance imaging, and positron emission tomography/CT) showed a hypermetabolic mass on the right side of the skull base, in the middle ear, and in the mastoid process, with invasion and partial destruction of the surrounding elements of the petrous bone, the occipital bone, and the sphenoid bone on the right, with extension by way of the clivus into the apex of the left petrous bone. Diagnostic puncture revealed Streptococcus pneumoniae.The final diagnosis was severe daily headache due to central skull base osteomyelitis. Our case emphasizes the need for proper clinical and radiological investigation keeping the diagnosis of skull base osteomyelitis in mind with patients with diabetes or otherwise immunocompromised status who present with chronic daily headache and otalgia.