Study for Temporal Bone Pneumatization in Patients with Cholesteatoma in Children

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Cholesteatoma occuring in childhood is often said to be more aggresive than that in adulthood, since cholesteatoma in children has a larger mastoid and earlier and more frequent recurrence as well as shorter disease history. In this sense, the pathogenesis of child cholesteatoma can be suspected to be different from that of adult cholesteatoma. The aim of this study is to show that cholesteatoma in children has more pneumatized mastoids than cholesteatoma in adults, and to find out the pathogenesis of child cholesteatoma which is deemed different from that of the adult. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In the present study, 20 child cholesteatomas and 20 adults cholesteatomas were used as subjects. We measured the size of mastoid air cells both in children and adult cholesteatoma by using a new analytical program for the temporal bone CT films. The size of the mastoid air cells was determined by the area of the plane showing a lateral semicircular canal on the temporal bone CT. The percent suppression in the area of the diseased side relative to that of the healthy side was calculated. RESULTS: The percent suppression was 10.5% in child cholesteatoma and 29.3% in adult cholesteatoma (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: We found that pneumatization of the mastoid air cells in children cholesteatoma was less suppressed than that in adult cholesteatoma.