Affiliations 

  • 1 University Kebangsaan Malaysia Centre, Department of ORLHNS, Jalan Yaacob Latif, 56000 Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. noorizan_yahya@yahoo.com
  • 2 Division of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Division of Cardiothoracic Anaesthesia, Heart and Lung Centre, Hospital Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Jalan Yaacob Latif, 56000 Cheras, Kuala Lumpur
Med J Malaysia, 2010 Jun;65(2):162-4.
PMID: 23756808 MyJurnal

Abstract

Temporal bone carcinoma may masquerade as an infective process causing late diagnosis. A delay in treatment as a result of missed diagnosis would carry a poor prognosis as the disease progresses to an advanced stage. We present a lady with history of chronic otorrhea, who developed left sided otalgia associated with hearing loss in her sixth decade. She underwent surgery which revealed left mastoiditis and cholesteatoma. After a year, she had a mass in her left ear and pus discharge which was initially treated as an infection. The biopsy of the mass was proven to be squamous cell carcinoma. High index of suspicion is necessary when encountering patients presenting with a mass in the ear canal with prior history of chronic otorrhea or cholesteatoma. Proper tissue biopsy is crucial. Early referral to tertiary centre is required for further management of the patient.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.