Introduction

Children and adolescents with intracranial sinugenic and otogenic complications are extremely rare. After ending all corona measures, the number seemed to increase rapidly. As ENT colleagues of different nations had similar observations, we initiated a study to evaluate this "perceived accumulation" retrospectively.

Material/Method

We included all patients (0 to 17years) treated from 2012 to 2023 at the University Hospital Regensburg. Parameters studied included age and diagnosis, time, duration and type of inpatient therapy. Furthermore, data on microbiology and virology, presence of acute and past covid infection(s) as well as time between the last covid infection and the current illness were collected. Finally, we evaluated differential blood count during acute infection.

Results

24 patients (9 female/15 male) with a median age of 10 years (1-15) were included. Between 2012 and January 2020, twelve cases were treated for the above complications. No case occurred between start of first lockdown in March 2020 and the cessation of all corona measures in April 2022. Within the following 12 months the number of children treated rose to 13.

Discussion

We observed an accumulation of patients with severe intracranial sinugenic and otogenic complications after ending of corona measures. This might be related to the strong increase in RSV infections and an "untrained" immune system. Since immunity to respiratory viruses is not permanent and needs to be established, especially in children, anti-COVID-19 measures may have led to a weakening of the immune system favoring the occurrence of superinfections.

The above results were the impetus to set up a multicenter trial including 10 ENT centers from Europe and USA. We will present the results at the DGHNO 24.

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