1974/04/01 by Isamu Sando, William G. Hemenway, Daniel R. Miller +1 · 5 citations
Medicine · Neuroscience · #Ear Surgery and Otitis Media #Ear and Head Tumors #Vestibular and auditory disorders
paper · doi:10.1288/00005537-197404000-00012
Abstract A histopathologic study of four temporal bones from two patients with vestibular pathology concurrent with otosclerosis is presented. The findings are as follows: 1. In each of the temporal bones, the otosclerotic focus was seen in apposition to the superior vestibular nerve with invasion of the cribriform area of the nerve in one of these ears; 2. there was vestibular nerve degeneration distal to these foci in all cases, worse in those nerve fibers close to the otosclerotic focus. In one case there was retrograde degeneration up to the area of Scarpa's ganglion; 3. three of the four temporal bones showed a marked degeneration of the sensory epithelium of the cristae of the lateral semicircular canals as well as loss of the subepithelial cells and neural elements; and 4. in all four temporal bones a basophilic deposit was found in the ampulated end of the posterior semicircular canal which may represent cupulolithiasis. We feel that the findings in these temporal bones are important histological confirmations of vestibular pathology in otosclerosis which have not been previously reported. This pathology may be the explanation for various clinical vestibular disorders seen in patients with otosclerosis, but, heretofore, very poorly understood.