Middle ear brain herniation

Abstract

A case of spontaneous middle ear brain herniation is presented, enhancing the scarce and unspecified symptomatology at the time of consultation and its bilateral presentation. Below is presented a brief review of the matter mentioning the ethiologies, forms of presentation and treatment. Middle ear brain herniation is a fairly uncommon pathology, where spontaneous idiopatic ethiology, as is this case, is even more infrequent. The main ethiology is postsurgical. If its presence is suspected, the patient must be studied with computerized tomography and magnetic resonance of the ears. This pathology must be considered in the cases presenting atical or mastoid occupation together with tegmen erosion, specially if the patient has been previously operated or suffers from chronic middle ear otitis. Once diagnosed, an advanced surgical repair must be made due to the risk of generation of neurological complications. To decide on the type of approach, the size of the herniation and its defect, its location and number must be considered. Success with the different surgical techniques is high when the correct technique is selected.