Cerebellar Hernia in a Patient with Chronic Otorrhea / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

Brain hernia into the middle ear cavity is quite a rare entity which is often caused by chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma and surgical complications. Other unusual factors such as extension of the intracranial meningioma, primary temporal bone meningioma and aberrant arachnoid granulation can also cause hernia of brain tissue. Brain hernia can be diagnosed through temporal bone computed tomography (TBCT) and brain magnetic resonance image (MRI), which show the location of bony defect and similar signal intensity between the herniated tissue and brain. We present a 50-year old female patient, who suffered from otorrhea 8 years ago; otorrhear disappeared 4 years ago and rhinorrhea 1 years ago. She had not have any history of chronic otitis media and otologic surgery. The herniated cerebellum was diagnosed through the TBCT and brain MRI. She was successfully cured after cerebellar reduction operation without any postoperative complications.