Beyond the middle ear: endoscopic surgical anatomy and approaches to inner ear and lateral skull base.

Currently, the main application of endoscopic surgery relies on the middle ear cholesteatoma surgical treatment. However, in the natural evolution of the technique there are the steps toward of lateral skull base surgery and treatment of pathologic conditions of pertous bone. The endoscopic approaches to lateral skull base are (1) a transcanal exclusively endoscopic approach or (2) combined approaches (microscopic endoscope-assisted), including transotic, infralabyrinthine, and suprameatal translabyrinthine.