Endoscopic techniques have revolutionized the practice of surgery in a number of specialities. Endoscopes have the ability to provide high magnification and illumination of the operative field, as well as the possibility to look around the corner past obstructing tissues and structures, thus allowing for more radical and safer surgeries. With several clinical applications, smaller incisions and...

in middle ear surgery. Concurrent improvements in the operating microscope made it possible to visualize middle ear structures in amazingly clear detail, and revealed to the ear surgeon the possibilities of preserving or restoring hearing in the surgical treatment of chronic middle ear infections. Since 1952 many articles have appeared describing various techniques of reconstructive surgery of ...

Acute or chronic otitis media can cause intracranial complications, one of the most serious being brain abscess. Empirical antibiotic treatment and proper surgical management should be considered to avoid fatal consequences. However, proper extent and optimal timing of surgical intervention are still matters of debate. We present a case of a 31-year-old man who presented with acutely altered me...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The petrous and cavernous segments of the extradural internal carotid artery take a complex course through the skull base before entering the subarachnoid space distal to the cavernous sinus. Despite the protection from trauma afforded by the anatomy, the petrous and carotid internal carotid artery (ICA) segments of the vessel remains subject to disease, the most importan...

Combined hearing loss is an essential indication for implantable hearing systems. Depending on the bone conduction threshold, various options are available: Patients with mild sensorineural deafness usually benefit from transcutaneous BCI, while percutaneous BCI systems are recommended also for moderate hearing loss. For combined hearing loss with moderate and high-grade cochlear hearing loss, ...

Hearing loss was studied in relation to age in nonoperated ears in a group of 142 subjects with autosomal dominant osteogenesis imperfecta type I, which was compared to that in a random subsample of 70 subjects. In the n = 142 group, particularly below the age of 30 years, considerable selection (ie, for ear surgery) had occurred on hearing loss. The hearing threshold increased gradually with a...

A case of otogenic brain abscess, secondary to cholesteatoma, is reported. Early diagnosis is very important for the treatment of otogenic brain abscess, which is a life-threatening disease. Early diagnosis of this disease is often difficult, because of modification by antibiotics. A 62-year-old male with a longstanding history of chronic left otorrhea with severe headache and fever, was admitt...

Techniques and biomaterials for reconstructive middle ear surgery are continuously and steadily developing. At the same time, clinical post-surgery results are evaluated to determine success or failure of the therapy. Routine quality assessment and assurance is of growing importance in the medical field, and therefore also in middle ear surgery. The exact definition and acquisition of outcome p...

Aim: To differentiate cholesteatoma from non cholesteatoma (control) CSOM on simple clinical grounds for its early detection and management. Methods: A series of 156 patients (aged 5-64-years of either sex) having atticoantral (unsafe) ear disease, including 94 patients with cholesteatoma CSOM and 62 patients of CSOM without cholesteatoma (controls) were inducted in the study. The clinical sign...

INTRODUCTION It is an erroneous but commonly held belief that intracranial complications (ICCs) of chronic and acute otitis media (COM and AOM) are past diseases or from developing countries. These problems remain, despite improvements in antibiotic care. OBJECTIVE This paper analyzes the occurrence and clinical characteristics and course of the main ICCs of otitis media (OM). METHODS Retro...