Diagnosis and Management of Cholesteatoma

Session Description

Cholesteatoma is a common issue for our patients. Essentially cholesteatoma is the medical term for “skin in the wrong place in the middle ear or mastoid”. Cholesteatoma. The more specific textbook term is “…the accumulation of exfoliated keratin in the middle ear or other pneumatized areas of the temporal bone, arising from keratinizing squamous epithelium.” Left, untreated cholesteatoma can erode into the facial nerve and cause facial paralysis, into the inner ear and cause deafness or dizziness and into the brain and cause meningitis and brain abscess. There is no real medical management for cholesteatoma and it often requires surgery such as a tympanoplasty with mastoidectomy or radical mastoidectomy. This course will show you pictures of cholesteatoma, attic retraction pockets, ways to reconstruct the ossicular chain.