A case of patulous Eustachian tube due to temporal bone malformation

Abstract

The subject of this study was a 50-year-old woman who had complained of autophonia, hearing her own breathing, and a feeling of stuffiness in her ear since undergoing adenotomy while in elementary school. Her symptoms had worsened over the course of a year, so she was referred to us, by her local doctor. An examination of the sounds transmitted to her ear canal, confirmed that the sound on the affected side was distorted and intensified. Similar results were obtained with the patient in the supine position. The pharyngeal orifice of the Eustachian tube on the affected side was enlarged, and the posterior lip was significantly smaller than that on the healthy side. Computed tomography revealed air throughout the Eustachian tube in both coronal and axial sections. There have been few studies concerning temporal bone malformation of the Eustachian tube expansion, with available reports mainly limited to external ear abnormalities and Klippel-Feil syndrome. The case examined in this study is therefore considered to be extremely rare.