Abstract
The middle cranial fossa approach (MCF) was introduced by William House in 1961 to expose and manage the temporal bone including CP angle lesions via middle cranial base without destroying the inner ear. Surgical approach of MCF is generally employed for patients with small acoustic neuroma having good hearing, petrous cholesteatoma, cholesterol cyst, superior semicircular canal deficiency syndrome, facial nerve tumor, severe facial nerve paralysis caused by Bell's palsy, Ramsay Hunt syndrome or temporal bone trauma. With development of images such as MRI, small lesions in the temporal bone are detectable easily before losing useful inner ear function. We otologists should do our best to preserve useful inner ear function. For that intraoperative monitoring and navigation systems may be powerful tools for surgeons.
