Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Sep 16, 2021; 9(26): 7811-7817
Published online Sep 16, 2021. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v9.i26.7811
Pediatric temporal fistula: Report of three cases
Mei-Zhen Gu, Hong-Ming Xu, Fang Chen, Wei-Wei Xia, Xiao-Yan Li
Mei-Zhen Gu, Hong-Ming Xu, Fang Chen, Xiao-Yan Li, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Shanghai Children's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200062, China
Wei-Wei Xia, Department of Radiology, Shanghai Children's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai 200062, China
Author contributions: Gu MZ, Xu HM, and Li XY designed the study, collected the data, and wrote the manuscript; Xia WW and Chen F wrote and approved the manuscript.
Supported by the Cross Research Fund of Biomedical Engineering of Shanghai Jiaotong University in 2017, No. YG2017MS36.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patients for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict of interest for this manuscript.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Xiao-Yan Li, MD, PhD, Dean, Full Professor, Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Shanghai Children's Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University, No. 355 Luding Road, Shanghai 200062, China. lixiaoyanent@sina.com
Received: February 24, 2021
Peer-review started: February 24, 2021
First decision: June 15, 2021
Revised: June 20, 2021
Accepted: July 30, 2021
Article in press: July 30, 2021
Published online: September 16, 2021
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Pediatric temporal fistulae are rarely reported in the literature. Dissemination of these cases can help inform future diagnosis and effective treatment.

CASE SUMMARY

Three pediatric patients came to the clinic due to repeated infections of the skin and soft tissue of the temporal area. One patient presented with a temporal fistula that penetrated the temporal bone and reached the dura mater. Another patient presented with a temporal fistula that penetrated into the temporal muscle fascia. The third patient presented with a fistula that penetrated the lateral wall of the orbit and entered the orbit. All patients underwent surgical fistula resection informed by preoperative computed tomography (CT) evaluation. Histopathological evaluation was also performed. All three patients were surgically treated successfully. Histopathological evaluations confirmed the fistula diagnoses in all three cases.

CONCLUSION

For patients who have temporal fistulae with repeated infections, surgical treatment should be performed as soon as possible to prevent serious complications. CT can be very useful for preoperative evaluation. B-mode ultrasound examination and evaluation also have a certain auxiliary role.

Keywords: Temporal fistula, Surgical treatment, Pediatric, Surgery, Infection, Congenital, Case report

Core Tip: For patients who have temporal fistulae with repeated infections, surgical treatment should be performed as soon as possible to prevent serious complications. Computed tomography can be very useful for preoperative evaluation.