[Treatment and outcome of infantile cholesteatoma surgery]

Infantile Cholesteatoma has been lately the aim of a large number of papers dealing with its natural history and optimal treatment. The outcome of 26 cases of ear surgery, done between 1990 and 1991, are reviewed. The etiology of Cholesteatoma was congenital in 2 cases, iatrogenic in an other one and unknown for the remainder (88%). Fifteen (15) closed surgical procedures and 11 open were carry out, achieving global removal of lesions in 76 percent of cases. Ninety-one (91%) of open tympanoplasties and 66 percent of closed procedures. Six cases evolved to recidivation (and later reoperatively reconverted in open cases) owing either to the erosion of the ossicular chain or encroachment of the recessus. Reconstructions of the ossicular chain was undertaken in 61.5 percent of cases and the hearing preserved in all instances and improved in 35 percent of reconstructions.