Pediatric middle ear cholesteatoma: the comparative study of congenital cholesteatoma and acquired cholesteatoma

This study examined the differences between congenital cholesteatoma (CC) and acquired cholesteatomas (AC) in children by comparing clinical features and treatment courses. This was a retrospective study which retrospectively evaluated 127 children with middle ear cholesteatomas using medical records from January 1999 to December 2012 in the Department of Otolaryngology, Niigata University Hospital. The study comprised 69 and 58 cases of CC and AC, respectively. The main outcome measures include patient backgrounds, the opportunities for consultations, mastoid cell development, intraoperative finding of stapes, surgical procedure and number of surgeries. The average age at operation was 6.4 and 9.8 years in CC and AC, respectively. AC was more prevalent in boys. Mastoid development was better in CC than in AC. We adopted a two-stage operation in 17 cases (25 %) of CC and in 22 cases (38 %) of AC. The repeat surgery rate was 11.6 % in CC and 27.6 % in AC. Three times as many operations were required for three cases (4.3 %) of CC and 10 cases (17.2 %) of AC. The lesions in AC were more difficult to control. In the treatment of pediatric middle ear cholesteatoma, we had to keep the outcome in mind.