Managements for lateral sinus thrombosis: does it need the ligation of internal jugular vein or anticoagulants?

The purposes of this study were to review the clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes of patients with lateral sinus thrombosis (LST) and to discuss the need of internal jugular vein (IJV) ligation or anticoagulants. We retrospectively reviewed the charts of five patients (1 male and 4 female) with LST. The chief complaints were otalgia, fever, mastoid tenderness, and neck pain. All patients were confirmatively diagnosed with MRI-Venography or Angio-CT scans. The patients were treated with appropriate antibiotics and operations including mastoidectomies with/without thrombectomy according to their suspected disease course. The authors did not perform IJV ligation and use anticoagulants in all cases, but there were no mortalities or morbidities. IJV ligation and use of anticoagulants do not seem to be essential procedures for the management of LST, and it should be considered carefully according to the extents of disease and the state of patients.