[Diagnosis of disorders affecting the auditory apparatus]

The advent of new imaging techniques, such as computerized tomography and magnetic resonance imaging, have modified the classical methods used to explore the auditory system. At the present time, computerized tomography remains the technique of choice for the study of inflammatory, traumatic or malformative lesions of the ear, but it has been superseded by magnetic resonance imaging in the study of tumours of the internal auditory canal and of the cerebellopontine angle.