Complications of mumps

I believe that we are all familiar with mumps in our daily life, and we should have a certain understanding of this disease. To a certain extent, this disease is contagious. In order to help everyone understand this disease more correctly, let's introduce what complications this disease will cause.

1. Aseptic meningitis, meningoencephalitis, and encephalitis: These are common complications. Among the various complications reported by Shanghai Medical University Children's Hospital for mumps, meningoencephalitis accounts for 90%. It occurs especially often in children, with more boys than girls. The incidence of encephalitis during mumps is about 0.3 to 0.8 percent. Since cerebrospinal fluid examination cannot be performed on all mumps patients, and some cases have never seen parotid swelling, it is difficult to calculate its exact incidence. Symptoms of meningoencephalitis may appear as early as 6 days before parotid swelling or within 2 weeks after swelling, and generally appear within 1 week after swelling. Acute cerebral edema such as headache and vomiting is more obvious. The electroencephalogram may change, but it is not as obvious as other viral encephalitis. It is mainly meningeal involvement, and the prognosis is mostly good. Individual cases of encephalitis may also lead to death. About 30% may not have parotid swelling. There have been cases of mumps encephalitis confirmed by serology in China, and there have been no parotid swelling and pain from beginning to end.

2. Multiple neuritis, poliomyelitis, etc.: Occasionally, multiple neuritis and poliomyelitis may occur 1 to 3 weeks after parotitis, and the prognosis is usually good. Swollen parotid glands may compress the facial nerve and cause temporary facial nerve paralysis, and sometimes imbalance, trigeminal neuritis, hemiplegia, paraplegia, ascending paralysis, etc. Occasionally, hydrocephalus may occur after parotitis due to aqueduct stenosis.

3. Deafness: It is caused by the involvement of the auditory nerve. Although the incidence rate is not high (about 1/15000), it can become permanent and complete deafness. Fortunately, 75% of deafness occurs only in one ear.