Tuberculosis of the middle ear

Tuberculosis of the middle ear and the mastoid is not a very common condition. Traditionally it has been diagnosed because of its peculiar clinical features such as painless otorrhoea, sensori-neural hearing loss and multiple perforations in the tympanic membrane. We report a case in which there were no clinical features of tuberculosis, otorrhoea was painful and hearing loss was of conductive variety. The final diagnosis depends on histopathology and we recommend pathological examination of all tissue removed during surgery