# Perichondritis of the auricle: bacterial or fungal? (A case series)

## TL;DR

This paper reports two cases where fungal infections were detected in auricle perichondritis using advanced sequencing, when traditional methods failed.

## Contribution

The study demonstrates the potential of metagenomic next-generation sequencing in identifying fungal pathogens in cases with negative bacterial cultures.

## Key findings

- Fungal infections were detected in two cases of pyogenic perichondritis using metagenomic next-generation sequencing.
- Patients showed good prognosis after receiving anti-fungal treatment following mNGS diagnosis.

## Abstract

Suppurative perichondritis of the auricle is a common disease that can easily cause malformations if it develops into an uncontrolled infection. In nearly half of the cases, otolaryngologists cannot identify the pathogens involved.

In the present work, we described two cases of pyogenic perichondritis, with negative on conventional culture. However, using metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS), we detected fungal infections in the patients and after the patients were given anti-fungal treatment, the patients achieved a good prognosis.

These cases highlighted the possibility that fungi might be the involved pathogens in patients who have had multiple negative bacterial cultures, and mNGS should be applied in these cases. mNGS could be used as a supplement to traditional culture methods.