Abstract
We report a rare case of incus dislocation to the subcutis of the external auditory canal after a traffic accident. The patient was a 26-year-old woman who had sustained a head injury in a traffic accident. Pure-tone audiometry showed conductive hearing loss in the right ear. Otoscopic examination showed a bony protrusion in the upper part of the right external auditory canal. CT revealed disappearance of the incus, and an incus-like bone was found in the right external auditory canal. The fracture line in the upper part of the posterior auditory canal extending to the fossa incudis was identified during surgery, and the incus was found on this fracture line. Based on these findings, we postulated that the incus was pushed into the subcutis of the external auditory canal by the impact of the skull injury through the fractured upper part of the posterior auditory canal, which was wide enough for the incus dislocation. The dislocated incus was used for ossiculoplasty. The hearing loss suffered by the patient disappeared completely after the surgery.
