complications
Last reviewed 01/2018
Possible complications of mumps include:
- meningo-encephalitis -
most frequent complication of infection in children.
- symptomatic viral meningeal irritation occurs in about 15% of cases of mumps infection
- may precede or follow parotitis or may even occur without salivary gland enlargement (1)
- encephalitis is much less common, occuring about once in a thousand patients (2,3)
- bilateral or unilateral sensorineural deafness occurs with frequency varying from one in 3400 cases to one in 20,000 (1)
- orchitis - in up to 25% of adult male patients (1), unilaterally in 80% of these; the predominance of unilateral orchitis means that infertility is relatively rare but 13% of patients with bilateral disease may have hypofertility (2)
- oophoritis - occurs in about 5% of female patients (1)
- pancreatitis - this is a rare complication of childhood infection. It may be seen in up to 7% of infections (1)
- other possible complications include (1) (2):
- episcleritis
- uveitis
- optic neuritis
- arthritis
- nephritis
- thyroiditis
- myocarditis
- idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
- increased risk of a miscarriage in the 1st 12 weeks of pregnancy (1)
Reference