Radiology Case Reports (Nov 2022)

Ossicular osteoma of the malleus—A rare diagnosis of middle ear mass

  • Matti Sievert, MD,
  • Konstantinos Mantsopoulos, MD,
  • Joachim Hornung, MD,
  • Vivian Thimsen, MD,
  • Rafael Heiss, MD,
  • Markus Kopp, MD,
  • Matthias Wetzl, MD,
  • Heinrich Iro, MD,
  • Michael Uder, MD,
  • Marco Wiesmueller, MD

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 11
pp. 4365 – 4367

Abstract

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Osteoma of the middle ear (MEO) is a rarity. Due to the benign nature and slow growth rate, MEO are often occasionally found by chance. Possible unspecific clinical symptoms may be conductive hearing loss, tinnitus, effusion, and a sense of fullness. If the osteoma is small and not visible in the otoscopic inspection, it may be confused with other conductive hearing loss etiologies, such as otosclerosis. Nevertheless, one should be aware of this rare but important differential diagnosis of middle ear lesions. This article presents an MEO case causing conductive hearing loss and outlines the diagnostic approach with computed tomography.

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