Congenital External Auditory Canal Atresia and Stenosis: Temporal Bone CT Findings

Introduction. Osteomas are a slow growing benign neoplasm of unknown etiology very rarely involving the temporal bone. They develop in the external auditory canal on squamous sections, in the mastoid, middle and inner ear. By bone composition they are divided into spongious (osteoma spongiosum) and compact osteomas (osteoma eburnum); by growth direction, into outward-growing (exosteoma) and in inwardgrowing (endosteoma); into unilateral and bilateral; by size, into small and gigantic; by surface structure, into smooth and multilobular; by number, into solitary and multiple; into symmetrical and asymmetrical. The symptoms of intracanalicular osteomas are the result of auditory canal obstruction. Diagnosis is made based on case history, clinical examination, audiological processing and radiography (temporal bone CT scan), and confirmed by histopathological examination of the bone. In terms of differential diagnosis, they must be distinguished from exostoses, bone tissue proliferation and osteoid osteomata. The progress of the disease is prolonged, as they are slow growing, asymptomatic and benign tumours. Therapy is surgical only. Case Outline. The report presents the case of a 70-year old patient with the osteoma of the right external auditory canal. In our patient, the osteoma arose in the auditory canal, the most frequent localization; it was unilateral, solitary, multilobular and compact. It was discovered accidentally, during otoscopic examination. The clinical diagnosis was confirmed by CT scan of the temporal bone. We applied surgical therapy by retroauricular approach. The removed bone change was about 12 mm high, 13-14 mm deep and about 8 mm wide. Histopathological findings confirmed osteoma. Conclusion. Due to their slow growth, the rate of auditory canal osteomas develop asymptomatically for a long time without the characteristic clinical features. In most cases, they are discovered accidentally during otoscopic or radiographic examination. The method of choice in diagnosis is temporal bone CT scan. Therapy is surgical.

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Imaging correlation of children with DFNB1 vs non-DFNB1 hearing loss

Otolaryngology ◽

10.1016/j.otohns.2009.01.031 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 140 (5) ◽

pp. 665-669 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Amit Kochhar ◽

Simon I. Angeli ◽

Sandeep P. Dave ◽

Xue Z. Liu

Keyword(s):

Hearing Loss ◽

Temporal Bone ◽

Visual Inspection ◽

Ct Images ◽

Normative Values ◽

Control Series ◽

Vestibular Aqueduct ◽

Ct Findings ◽

Temporal Bone Ct ◽

Absolute Measurements

Objectives: To evaluate temporal bone CT findings in GJB2-related deafness (DFNB1) hearing loss and non-DFNB1 hearing loss children. Study Design: Case-control series. Subjects and Methods: Children with nonsyndromic hearing loss diagnosed as DFNB1 or non-DFNB1 after screening GJB2 allele variants and the large GJB6 deletion. Temporal bone CT images compared in a cohort of nine DFNB1 children with 10 non-DFNB1 children. Visual criteria and absolute measurements were compared against established normative values. Results: Visual inspection failed to identify two patients with abnormalities identified by using absolute measurements. Only one of nine DFNB1 children had an ear anomaly versus seven of 10 non-DFNB1 (odds ratio 16.33; 95% CI, 1.35, 197.78; P = 0.050). The non-DFNB1 group had a mean vestibule width that was significantly larger, and a mean lateral semicircular canal island width and vestibular aqueduct that were significantly smaller than the DFNB1 group. Conclusions: Visual inspection of temporal bone CT images alone may not identify all anomalies and should be used with absolute CT measurements. Abnormal temporal bone CT findings are significantly less likely in children with DFNB1 compared with non-DFNB1 children despite similar age and degree of hearing loss.

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