[Signal symptoms in tumours of the petrous bone (author's transl)]

Supra-labyrinthic tumours usually produce lesions of the Vth and VIth cranial nerves, whereas infra-labyrinthic tumours affect the sensory-motor nerves. Both types of tumour may reveal themselves by cochleo-vestibular disorders and/or middle ear symptoms. The author has treated a series of patients with such tumours and describes the most frequent types of intrapetrosal growth: cholesteatoma (12 cases), glomic tumours (11 cases), facial nerve tumours (3 cases), metastases (2 cases). Meningiomas can also be encountered, as well as rarer tumours (4 cases), such as embryonic sarcoma, chordoma, chondroma and chondrosarcoma, cavernous angioma, eosinophilic granuloma, solitary plasmocytoma and fibrous dysplasia of the petrous bone. Some signal symptoms (sudden deafness, mucous otitis media, paralysis of vocal cords) can be particularly misleading.