[Postauricular cutaneous mastoid fistula: a case report].

Infections which involve the middle ear mucosa may easily cause mastoiditis due to the relation between the middle ear space and mastoid cavity. Postauricular cutaneous mastoid fistula is a rare complication of chronic otitis media. While most of the simple mastoid fistulas tend to heal spontaneously with the treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media, cutaneous mastoid fistulas tend to heal very slowly, as the ingrowth of the skin surrounding the fistula is followed by necrosis or epithelization of the skin edges. In this article, we report a 46-year-old female case of automastoidectomy secondary to the chronic otitis and postauricular cutaneous mastoid fistula in the light of surgical closure technique.