Surgery of the Whole Temporal Bone and Surrounding Skull Base

Abstract

The recent advancement of CT and MRI diagnostic techniques has enabled detection of small tumors existing in the middle fossa, temporal bone and infratemporal region. This has encouraged otologists to major in surgeries of the whole temporal bone, surrounding cerebellopontine angle, internal acoustic meatus, middle fossa and infratemporal regions. This study was designed to demonstrate how successfully lesions at these sites may be managed by otosurgeons. Access to the sites of lesions in our skull base surgery was achieved by transmastoid approach, by subtotal resection of the temporal bone, by translabyrinthine approach or transtemporal middle fossa approach, by transtemporal supralabyrinthine approach to the geniculate ganglion and adjacent regions, by approach through the temporal bone to retro-and parapharyngeal spaces beneath the temporal bone and by combination of infra-and extratemporal bone approach.