Hunter et al summarized their 10 years’ experience of only 7 patients undergoing cochlear implant (CI) surgery after previous canal wall-down mastoidectomy using a single-layer external auditory canal overclosure technique. The authors seem to be surprised that their findings of 2 ear canal failures contradict the experience of 303 patients reported in the literature—including our own study. In...

OBJECTIVES To identify the common presentation(s) and the clinical and operative finding(s) in patients with cholesteatomatous and long-term noncholesteatomatous chronic suppurative otitis media and to adapt a surgical management best suited to ensure long-term safety in these Papua New Guinean patients for whom postoperative follow-up is minimal. DESIGN Retrospective case series. SETTING P...

INTRODUCTION First branchial cleft anomalies manifest with duplication of the external auditory canal. CASE REPORT This report features a rare case of microtia and congenital middle ear and canal cholesteatoma with first branchial fistula. External auditory canal stenosis was complicated by middle ear and external canal cholesteatoma, but branchial fistula, opening in the zygomatic root and a...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the initial and longer term success of closing the air-bone gap (ABG) to 20 dB in ossiculoplasty with canal wall down mastoidectomy. METHODS This study was conducted at a private otologic practice. Patients included those who underwent ossiculoplasty from 1989 to 1996 with canal wall down mastoidectomy, whether primary or revision (33 from a tot...

Introduction The objectives of mastoidectomy in cholesteatoma are a disease-free and dry ear, the prevention of recurrent disease, and the maintenance of hearing or the possibility to reconstruct an affected hearing mechanism. Canal wall down mastoidectomy has been traditionally used to achieve those goals with greater or lesser degrees of success. However, canal wall down is an aggressive appr...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate the usefulness of silicone blocks as graft material for mastoid cavity obliteration in the prevention of problematic mastoid cavities after canal wall down mastoidectomies. METHODS Retrospective evaluation of 20 patients who underwent mastoid obliteration with silicone blocks between 2002 and 2009 at the Chonnam National University Hospital. The cases consisted of 17 pa...