Eccrine cylindroma is a benign tumour arising from sweat glands in the skin. It favours the face, forehead and scalp involving the turban area and hence is called a turban tumour. Amongst a variety of tumours originating from adnexal skin structures, which may appear in the ear canal, eccrine cylindroma forms a very rare entity. We present such a case and discuss its pathological and clinical features.
HYPOTHESIS: Epithelial migration on the external auditory canal (EAC) wall is abnormal in ears with keratosis obturans (KO).
BACKGROUND: Earlier studies of epithelial migration have focused on the tympanic membrane with scattered information available for epithelial migration on canal walls. This study was undertaken to observe the epithelial migration on the EAC wall in normal ears and in ears with KO.
METHODS: Twenty-five subjects with normal ears and 4 with KO were recruited for the study. Colored ink dots were placed around the tympanic annulus at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock positions. Migration patterns and the rate of travel of these ink dots were examined and photographed until the ink dots reached the bony cartilaginous junction.
RESULTS: Fifteen healthy subjects and 1 with bilateral KO completed the study. The ink dots migrated laterally, with a rate of migration in normal ears between 42 and 205 μm/d. The mean rates for each quadrant, measured clockwise from the 12 o'clock position, were 104.93, 89.80, 72.67, and 109.93 μm/d, respectively. The pathologic ears exhibited a rate between 88 and 140 μm/d, and at approximately 4 to 12 weeks after ink application, areas of abnormal desquamation were apparent at the inferior quadrant, leading to a halt in the migration of the ink dot once it reached these sites.
CONCLUSION: Epithelial migration occurred in an almost linear pattern in all quadrants, but the speed of migration was relatively slower in the anterior and inferior quadrants of a normal EAC. In the single KO patient, there were areas of normal migration and areas of abnormal keratin resurfacing at the inferior quadrant, which interfered with the migration of ink dots.
The objectives of this study were to determine the presence of epithelial migration in patients with postirradiated nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) and to compare the rate of epithelial migration in the tympanic membrane (TM) and the bony external auditory canal (EAC) of postirradiated NPC ears with normal ears by means of the ink dot method.
We performed a study to determine if cerumen in the ear canal causes significant hearing loss and to ascertain if there is any correlation between the amount of cerumen and the degree of hearing loss. Our study was conducted on 109 ears in 80 patients. The results indicated that impacted cerumen does cause a significant degree of conductive hearing loss. We found no significant correlation between the length of the cerumen plug and the severity of hearing loss. Nor did we find any significant correlation between the presence of impacted cerumen and variables such as age, sex, ethnicity, or affected side.
INTRODUCTION: The present study aimed to obtain preliminary tympanometric data of young Malay adults and to compare the results between genders.
METHODS: 96 undergraduate students (49 males and 47 females), aged 19-25 (mean and standard deviation 21.14 +/- 1.31) years, participated in this study. Otoscopic examination, pure tone audiometry, qualitative tympanogram and ipsilateral acoustic reflex were measured to ensure a clear ear canal, normal hearing and normal middle ear function, prior to tympanometric measurement. As a result, a total of 154 ears (80 ears from males and 74 ears from females) were selected for further statistical analyses. The tympanometric parameters measured were peak compensated static acoustic admittance (Peak Y(tm)), tympanometric width (TW) and equivalent ear canal volume (V(ea)).
RESULTS: The results showed that the mean Peak Y(tm), V(ea) and TW for males were 0.81 mmhos, 1.48 cubic cm and 113.67 daPa, respectively. The mean Peak Y(tm), V(ea) and TW for females were 0.63 mmhos, 1.12 cubic cm and 98.04 daPa, respectively. Males were found to have significantly higher mean V(ea) and mean Peak Y(tm) than females. However no significant gender difference was observed in the mean TW.
CONCLUSION: The current study suggests that young Malay adults may require gender-specific Peak Y(tm) and V(ea) values when implementing a quantitative approach in tympanogram interpretation.
The purpose of this study was to review the results of our patients with congenital canal atresia after implantation of bone-anchored hearing aids (BAHA). The occurrence of complications was also reviewed.
Sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) due to internal auditory canal (IAC) stenosis with hypoplasia of the cochleovestibular nerve is a rare disorder. The diagnosis of the IAC stenosis requires both high resolution computed tomography scan (HRCT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).