[Malignant melanoma of the middle ear, a rare site]

Melanomas of upper airway tract constitute around 1% of the total melanomas of head and neck. It's for this reason we cannot forget their location in middle ear, although it is truly rare, and we have only found three cases published in literature. We report a patient of 75 years old, who went to our hospital with otorrhea of two months of evolution, with subjective sensation of deafness. In the exploration ENT a bleeding neoformation was observed by otoscopy, which occupied all external auditory canal. The biopsy of this neoformation was informed as malignant neoplasm. These cells show a little cytoplasmic melanotic pigment and were positive to the tinction with Masson Fontana, as well as to the immunohistochemical antibodies S-100 and HMB-45. These antibodies are specific of malignant melanoma. We had a low opinion of surgical treatment because the affectation of the temporal bone and the size of melanoma. Because of badly prognosis, our patient died six months after the diagnosis.