Carcinoid tumor of the middle ear

Although carcinoid tumors are labeled as neuroendocrine tumors they can also originate in tissue lacking neuroendocrine cells, such as that in the middle ear. Symptoms of a carcinoid tumor in the middle ear are common ear symptoms such as fullness, pain and hearing loss. Carcinoid tumors have also been considered to be slow-growing. Both these aspects can easily lead to a relatively late diagnosis of carcinoid tumor of the middle ear. The diagnosis is made histologically, and the tumor is primarily treated surgically. In the follow-up of patients, octreotide scanning has proved to be a sensitive method in cases of both recurrence and metastasis. Our patient was a 34-year-old, otherwise healthy female with left-sided acute otitis media and facial palsy in her left ear. She had also suffered from the same symptoms 4 years earlier. She was treated with an operation, and the histologic diagnosis was a carcinoid tumor. In the follow-up of the patient we used octreotide scanning.