POF and infection
POF is a known entity in surgery in general and in ear surgery in
particular. El-Saied et al . (10) reported an
overall POF incidence of 19.2% after cochlear implant surgery and
showed that POF was unrelated to infectious or local complications and
did not seem to have any long-term significance. Nevertheless, in
contrast to the AM cochlear implants is an elective and ”clean”
procedure. In the setting of CAM; an acute infectious disease requiring
surgery for purulent drainage and reduction of bacterial load, POF may
be a sign of complications, requiring further investigation and
treatment. To the best our knowledge our present study is the first to
characterize the POF course of CAM. We found that POF is different in
magnitude and duration in SCG and in MCG. We found that in any given POD
in the MCG, the fever tended to be more common and higher. Nevertheless,
around POD6, no differences were recorded in the values of fever
measured between the two study groups, and the fever normalized in most
of the patients. This is an important finding, suggesting that in a
patient with CAM, POF should be expected and does not necessarily mean
lack of control of the infection that would require repeated imaging and
possibly revision surgery.