Abstract
The operation for cholesteatoma with labyrinthine fistula requires care to prevent loss of hearing especially in cases with only one hearing ear. A 52-year-old woman presented with cholesteatomas and labyrinthine fistula. She had suffered from profound sensorineural hearing loss in the opposite ear from her childhood. Although the fistula was not detected in the preoperative CT, we predicted the existence of labyrinthine fistula due to dizziness and symptoms of fistula. We performed canal-wall-down tympanoplasty type III. The fistula existed from the lateral semicircular canal to the vestibule. Her hearing level was remarkably improved after surgery, and vestibular symptoms were also improved.
We operated on 115 ears with cholesteatomas in the past five years, five of which had labyrinthine fistula. Referring to these five cases, we investigated the factors that affect bone conduction levels and indications for surgery for those cases with only one hearing ear.
