EBV infection as etiology of otomastoiditis with peripheral facial paralysis in the child

Case report on a 15-month-old girl with acute bilateral otomastoiditis with facial nerve palsy in the course of an EBV infection. Although the initial mononucleosis blood test was negative the diagnosis was established by the presence of blastic transformed lymphocytes with immunoreaction for the latent membrane protein of EBV, and the presence of EBV-mRNA in the majority of lymphocytes in the biopsy specimen. The occurrence of facial nerve palsy in the course of an EBV infection is relatively rare but well known. The present case involved a viral otomastoiditis with a typical course, which was complicated by facial nerve palsy after a few days of illness. A case of this kind has only once been described in an adult patient and has never been reported in a child.