Cholesteatoma
Description of Cholesteatoma
Cholesteatoma is a destructive and expanding sac in the middle ear and/or mastoid process.
There are two types: congenital and acquired.
- Acquired cholesteatomas can be caused by a tear or retraction of the ear drum.
- Less commonly the disease may be congenital, when it grows from birth behind the eardrum. Congenital cholesteatomas are more often found in the anterior aspect of the ear drum, in contrast to acquired cholesteatomas that usually arise from the pars flaccida region of the ear drum in the posterior-superior aspect of the ear drum.
Both the acquired as well as the congenital types of the disease can affect the facial nerve that reaches from the brain to the face and leads through the inner and middle ear and leaves at the forward tip of the mastoid bone, and then rises to the front of the ear and extends into the upper and lower face.