October 8, 2012 Joseph A. Ursick, MD; Derald E. Brackmann, MD
article
Cholesterol granulomas can cause bony expansion and typically become symptomatic when they encroach upon adjacent cranial nerves.
October 4, 2012 Yok Kuan Chew, MS; Jack Pein Cheong, MBBS; Abdullah Khir, MS; Sushil Brito-Mutunayagam, MS; Narayanan Prepageran, FRCS
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Abstract
Otogenic brain abscess and postauricular fistula are complications of chronic suppurative otitis media. We describe a rare case of bilateral chronic suppurative otitis media that caused a left temporal lobe abscess and a right mastoid fistula.
August 10, 2012 Borlingegowda Viswanatha, MS, DLO
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Abstract
A 14-year-old girl who had been experiencing ear discharge for the previous 3 years was referred to a tertiary care center for management of a 3-day history of severe headache and vomiting. Otolaryngologic examination revealed the presence of an atticoantral type of ear disease on the left side. Computed tomography detected an interhemispheric subdural abscess that had originated on the left side. The patient was initially treated with antibiotics, and she later underwent a mastoidectomy to clear the ear disease. She recovered without complications. Subdural empyema is the rarest complication of otitis media, and it is very rarely seen in an interhemispheric setting.
August 10, 2012 Ahmed Hesham, MD; Ayman Hussien, MD; Ahmed Hussein, MD
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Abstract
Previous animal studies have shown that the topical application of mitomycin C is safe and effective in prolonging the patency of myringotomy openings in ears that have not received a ventilation tube. We conducted a randomized, controlled study in humans to determine if this treatment would make a difference in outcomes when a ventilation tube is inserted. To that end, we prospectively studied a group of patients with resistant otitis media with effusion who underwent bilateral myringotomy and ventilation tube insertion. Our original study population was made up of 55 children aged 2 to 12 years; 15 of these patients were lost to follow-up, leaving us with 40 patients and 80 ears. Each patient served as his or her own control, as mitomycin C was applied to the tympanic membrane on one side just prior to myringotomy creation and normal saline was applied to the other side. Our main outcomes measures were the duration of tube placement (i.e., the length of time before extrusion of the tube) and the incidence of other early and late postoperative complications. We found no statistically significant difference between the mitomycin C-treated ears and the control ears in any of these parameters. We conclude that the use of mitomycin C prior to myringotomy and ventilation tube insertion is not worthwhile.
July 5, 2012 David Manning, MD; Enrique Palacios, MD, FACR; Harold Neitzschman, MD, FACR
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Leukemia of the middle ear easily can be misidentified as acute otitis media or Bell palsy. It occurs most often in children 2 to 5 years of age and in the elderly population.
June 4, 2012 Seung Ho Lee, MD; Hoseok Choi, MD, PhD; Young Chae Chu, MD; Young Hyo Kim, MD; Kyu-Sung Kim, MD, PhD
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Abstract
Middle ear adenoma is a rare disease that arises from the mucosa of the middle ear. Only a few cases of associated facial nerve paralysis have been reported. Facial nerve involvement is most likely related to nerve compression rather than tumor invasion of the nerve. We describe a case of a huge middle ear adenoma in a 63-year-old man. He presented with a 1-month history of right-sided otalgia, otorrhea, and facial palsy; he also had a 10-year history of right-sided hearing loss. A tympanomastoidectomy was performed. Intraoperatively, the tumor was found to fill the middle ear cavity as well as the entire diameter of the external auditory canal. The tumor had eroded the wall of the facial canal at the second genu, and it was tightly adherent to the epineurium. Focal inflammation around the tumor was observed at the exposed facial nerve. The tumor was removed and the facial nerve was decompressed. Immediately after surgery, the patient’s aural symptoms resolved. The final pathology evaluation established the diagnosis of a middle ear adenoma. At the 3-year follow-up, the ear cavity was completely healed and facial nerve function was improved.
March 31, 2012 John C. Goddard, MD and Jose N. Fayad, MD
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Only 10% of patients with otosclerosis exhibit the reddish hue of the Schwartze sign. It is believed to appear because of increased vascularity over the promontory in the middle ear.
March 1, 2012 Leonard P. Berenholz, MD, Dyana L. Rossi, MA, William H. Lippy, MD, and John M. Burkey, MA
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Abstract
The purpose of this investigation was to use distortion-product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) testing to address the issue of possible ototoxicity from the use of neomycin/polymyxin B/hydrocortisone otic suspension following tympanostomy tube placement. We retrospectively reviewed our clinical records and identified 36 children (52 ears) who had met our three study criteria: (1) unilateral or bilateral placement of transtympanic ventilation tubes, (2) treatment for 3 to 5 days with neomycin/polymyxin B/hydrocortisone drops, and (3) postoperative evaluation by DPOAE testing. We identified another set of 36 children (52 ears) who had not received these drops and who had not undergone tube placement but who had been evaluated by DPOAE testing to serve as a control group. We found no significant differences in DPOAE amplitudes between the treatment and control groups. These findings are consistent with decades of clinical experience indicating that neomycin/polymyxin B/hydrocortisone otic suspension is safe when used responsibly.
February 18, 2012 John C. Goddard, MD and Jose N. Fayad, MD
January 25, 2012 Min-Tsan Shu, MD, Jehn-Chuan Lee, MD, Cheng-Chien Yang, MD, and Kang-Chao Wu, MD
November 22, 2011 Bruno Kenway, BMedSci, MRCS, DOHNS, Anand Kasbekar, BMedSci, MRCS, DOHNS, Neil Donnelly, MSc, FRCS (ORLHNS), and Patrick Axon, MD, FRCS (ORLHNS)
article
Abstract
This study was undertaken to assess dysgeusia in patients who have undergone middle ear surgery for chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) when the surgeon's practice was to cleanly divide the chorda tympani without prior manipulation, if it in any way hindered operative access or the aims of surgery. We wanted to determine whether lower rates of taste disturbance might be obtained by early, clean division of the nerve. We followed 110 patients prospectively and asked them to complete a postoperative dysgeusia questionnaire 1 year after surgery. The “cut nerve” group included 81 patients, and the “uncut nerve” group included 29 patients. In the uncut group, the nerve was untouched or underwent minimal handling. In the cut nerve group, 68% of patients had no taste disturbance after surgery; 4% of patients in this group had ongoing symptoms at 1 year postoperatively. In the uncut nerve group, 67% were asymptomatic, while 11% had ongoing taste disturbance at 1 year. Statistical analysis of symptoms beyond 1 year showed a mean difference of 7%, but this is not statistically significant (p = 0.38). These results suggest that early division of the chorda tympani without prior manipulation in patients with chronic suppurative otitis media does not result in higher rates of taste disturbance than in patients with uncut nerves. Indeed rates of taste disturbance in our cut group were lower than in the uncut group, and lower than or comparable to those seen in other studies.
November 22, 2011 Alfred Marc Iloreta, MD and Benjamin D. Malkin, MD
