Question:medium
Pott's puffy tumor is best described as:
Pott's puffy tumor is best described as:
Show Hint
It is a subperiosteal abscess over an osteomyelitic frontal bone from frontal sinusitis.
Updated On: Jun 23, 2026
- Subperiosteal abscess of frontal bone
- Subperiosteal abscess of ethmoid bone
- Mucocele of frontal bone
- Mucocele of ethmoid bone
Show Solution
The Correct Option is A
Solution and Explanation
Step 1: The named lesion is a forehead swelling that follows frontal sinus infection. The pathology underneath the swelling is the clue.
Step 2: Frontal sinusitis erodes into the frontal bone, setting up osteomyelitis, and pus collects beneath the periosteum, creating a subperiosteal abscess on the frontal bone surface.
Step 3: That soft, puffy forehead mass over an osteomyelitic frontal bone is exactly what Percivall Pott described, and it threatens to extend intracranially into epidural or brain abscesses.
Step 4: A mucocele is a sterile mucus-filled expansion, not this infective abscess, and the ethmoid is not the bone involved. So the correct description is a subperiosteal abscess of the frontal bone.
\[\boxed{\text{Subperiosteal abscess of frontal bone}}\]
Step 2: Frontal sinusitis erodes into the frontal bone, setting up osteomyelitis, and pus collects beneath the periosteum, creating a subperiosteal abscess on the frontal bone surface.
Step 3: That soft, puffy forehead mass over an osteomyelitic frontal bone is exactly what Percivall Pott described, and it threatens to extend intracranially into epidural or brain abscesses.
Step 4: A mucocele is a sterile mucus-filled expansion, not this infective abscess, and the ethmoid is not the bone involved. So the correct description is a subperiosteal abscess of the frontal bone.
\[\boxed{\text{Subperiosteal abscess of frontal bone}}\]
Was this answer helpful?
0
