Learning Objectives:

Introduction: Petrous bone cholesteatoma is a rare condition affecting the temporal bone. It can be congenital or an evolution of a middle ear cholesteatoma. Usually at clinical presentation it involves labyrinth, facial nerve or vascular strucures. We presented 7 cases of petrous bone cholesteatoma treated in our department in the last 4 years.

Methods: We retrospectively review 7 cases of temporal bone cholesteatoma recently treated in our department.

Results: Three patients presented a previous hystory of middle ear surgery negleted and they presented at the consultation for pain in ear region. Two had already total hearing loss on that side. In the other 4 cases the cholesteatoma was congenital and the diagnosis was made by magnetic resonance for facial palsy in three cases and paralysis of the VI nerve in one case. The surgical approach was transcochlear in 2 cases, translabyrinthine in 4 cases and 1 patients was treated by supralabyrinthine approach. Facial nerve was interrupted in one case and an end to end anasthomosis was performed. We were able to preserve hearing in only 1 case. Facial nerve function improve but normalized only in 1 case.

Conclusions: Facial nerve fuction is the challenging problem in case of petrous bone cholesteatoma. Hearing can be preserved only in case of supralabyrinthine extension.