A Case of Middle Ear Neuroendocrine Adenoma in a Patient with Hearing Loss and Facial Palsy / 대한이비인후과학회지

Middle ear adenoma is a very rare disease which is benign and originates from the middle ear mucosa. Patients of middle ear adenoma usually come to the clinic for unilateral hearing loss or tinnitus, but rarely for accompanied facial palsy. It is non-gender specific and occurs over a wide range of ages. The recurrence rate is known to be very low, but few authors argue that neuroendocrine adenoma should be considered as a low grade carcinoma due to some cases of recurrence. A 18 years-old male who had a left side facial palsy about 3 years ago but has currently improved as compared with the initial onset, visited our clinic for the left side hearing loss. Pure tone audiogram showed about 30 dB of conductive hearing loss and a pinkish polypoid mass involving the left tympanic membrane. We removed a tumor via transmastoid approach. The final diagnosis was middle ear adenoma with neuroendocrine differentiation. Neither signs of complication nor recurrence were observed after six months of the surgery.

A Case of the Middle Ear Adenoma / 대한이비인후과학회지

The middle ear adenoma is a rare neoplasm originating from the lining epithelium of the middle ear mucosa. The first report of a middle ear glandular tumor was published in 1898 by Treitel and since then over 100 cases have been reported. At least 14 different descriptions have been given to these lesions, reflecting the controversies relating to their presumed histogenesis and differentiation. The middle ear adenoma has been often classified into mixed and papillary type by cellular morphology, growing pattern, prognosis, and clinical manifestations. The most common initial symptom was decreased hearing, followed by ear-fullness, otalgia, headache, and otorrhea. Radiologically, the most common finding is a soft tissue mass in the middle ear. In this study, we present a case of the middle ear adenoma of the patient complaining hearing difficulty and otorrhea, which was diagnosed by histopathologic finding, and then discuss the current approach to this tumor with a review of literature.