A Case of Middle Ear Neuroendocrine Adenoma in a Patient with Hearing Loss and Facial Palsy / 대한이비인후과학회지

ABSTRACT

Middle ear adenoma is a very rare disease which is benign and originates from the middle ear mucosa. Patients of middle ear adenoma usually come to the clinic for unilateral hearing loss or tinnitus, but rarely for accompanied facial palsy. It is non-gender specific and occurs over a wide range of ages. The recurrence rate is known to be very low, but few authors argue that neuroendocrine adenoma should be considered as a low grade carcinoma due to some cases of recurrence. A 18 years-old male who had a left side facial palsy about 3 years ago but has currently improved as compared with the initial onset, visited our clinic for the left side hearing loss. Pure tone audiogram showed about 30 dB of conductive hearing loss and a pinkish polypoid mass involving the left tympanic membrane. We removed a tumor via transmastoid approach. The final diagnosis was middle ear adenoma with neuroendocrine differentiation. Neither signs of complication nor recurrence were observed after six months of the surgery.