2015 Volume 25 Issue 2 Pages 111-118
Glomus tympanicum tumors are relatively rare, and the first Japanese case was reported in 1956. We have performed a retrospective study of four patients who received total removal of a glomus tympanicum tumor within the period from May 2006 to December 2013 in our department. All four patients were female. They all experienced pulsatile tinnitus, and three of them complained of hearing loss. Tumor resections were performed under general anesthesia, and tympanoplasty type I was carried out in three cases, and tympanoplasty type IIIc was carried out in the remaining case. All operations could be completed successfully with no preoperative embolization and a little perioperative blood loss. All cases were pathologically diagnosed with paragangliomas. During surgery for a glomus tympanicum tumor, it is important to decide on an appropriate surgical procedure based on the preoperative imaging findings. It is also important to perform hemostasis of the feeding vessels and to reduce the tumor size using bipolar cautery, which also functions to widen the surgical field. There has been no sign of tumor recurrence in any of the four cases.
