Middle Ear Actinomycosis Involving Facial Nerve and Lateral Semicircular Canal / 대한이비인후과학회지

Actinomycosis is a chronic granulomatous disease caused by the species of Actinomyces. Although it has become a rare disease in the present antibiotics era, it still needs long term antibiotic treatment and often mis- or delayed- diagnosed due to no typical sign and symptoms. Most often, it occurs in the cervicofacial region. Middle ear is not a common site for Actinomycosis, and the inner ear involvement is extremely rare. Here, we report a case of middle ear Actinomycosis involving facial nerve and lateral semicircular canal.

Comparison between Pure Tone Audiometry and Auditory Steady-State Responses in Korean Children and Adult / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Assessing accurate audiometry might be an important index treating patients with hearing loss. So far there have been no studies on analysis of correlations between pure tone audiometry (PTA) and auditory steady-state response (ASSR) for children in Korea. We analyzed correlations between PTA and ASSR in order to investigate the usefulness of ASSR. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: Past medical records were retrieved from the patients who visited Department of Otolaryngology at Tertiary Referral Hospital from January 2012 to December 2012 and underwent the correlation study between ASSR and PTA with a correlation analysis of frequency. The participants over the age of 15 were classified into the adult group and those below in the children group. RESULTS: There was a statistically significant correlation between the average hearing threshold of ASSR and PTA (correlation coefficient=0.934). There was a strong correlation between children and adult group, too. With the frequency range of 500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz, the correlation coefficients were 0.875, 0.896, 0.915, and 0.900, respectively. The degree of hearing loss was classified by using PTA follows: below 25 dB as normal; between 26-55 dB as moderate hearing loss; above 56 dB as severe hearing loss. Correlation coefficients for the above hearing ranges were 0.527, 0.670, and 0.744, respectively. Strong correlation was found between children and adult group, too. CONCLUSION: The comparison results between the average hearing threshold of ASSR and PTA indicated that the threshold of ASSR could well reflect the results of both children and adult group.

Osteoma of the Promontory Mimicking a Congenital Cholesteatoma

Osteoma of the temporal bone most commonly occurs in the external ear. Osteomas in the middle ear are not common, and only 25 relevant cases (18 papers) have been reported in the English literature. With only 5 cases reported to date, osteoma of the promontory in the middle ear is rare. This study reports a case of asymptomatic osteoma of the promontory in the middle ear mimicking a congenital cholesteatoma in a 4-year-old girl.

A Case of Incudal Osteoma Accompanied by Primary Acquired Cholesteatoma / 대한이비인후과학회지

Osteomas in the middle ear are very rare. To date, there are 23 cases of osteomas of the middle ear reported in the English literature. Of these, five osteomas arose from the ossicles, but those accompanied by cholesteatoma is extremly rare. There are only two cases that are all congenital cholesteatoma. Ossicular osteoma with primary acquired cholesteatoma has not been reported previously. We present a case of osteoma of the incus accompanied by primary acquired cholesteatoma, which was diagnosed incidentally in the middle ear.