Cholesteatoma: Chronic Ear Infections Leading to Total Hearing Loss

From a young age, I suffered recurrent ear infections. I had tubes placed in my ears a total of four times, had my adenoids removed, and still they became infected. Repeated infections and surgeries left me with scar tissue on my right ear drum and hearing loss that would become permanent.

As I got older, the frequency of infections did lessen, and I was able to live a normal life despite the hearing loss and occasional infection. Then, in December 2007, on a Sunday morning I woke up with an ear infection. Being a common occurrence, I did not seek medical treatment that day or the following Monday. By Tuesday I was in agony. I went to see my general practitioner, who prescribed a round of Z-pack and sent me on my way.

Three days later, I was back. The infection was worse. Mystified, the doctor gave me an intramuscular injection of Rocephin, and oral Levaquin to take for seven days. Again, the antibiotics refused to work.

My ear drum ruptured and my ear began to drain. On my third visit, the doctor referred me to an Otolaryngologist, an ear, nose, and throat doctor. The specialist irrigated my ear and started me on stronger antibiotics and an anti-fungal, both to no avail. I returned to him three more time, and my final visit with him complained of swelling and pain in my jaw and sharp, shooting pains into my head above my ear.

At this time, a month had passed, and the new year rolled around with a change in insurance that required me to switch providers and start over again with another general practitioner. This doctor started me on more antibiotics and suggested that I may have something called a cholesteatoma. She referred me to another specialist that was familiar with cholesteatomas and their treatment.

It turns out, the scar tissue in my ear had begun to slough off and form a sort of tumor-like growth. When it became infected, the infection migrated to the surrounding bones of my middle ear causing mastoiditis, which could potentially be life-threatening, because the mastoid bone is the last line of defense before the brain. And a brain infection could result in death.

Finally my infection cleared up, and we were able to discuss treatment of the cholesteatoma, which is surgery to remove it and possibly repair any damage to the bones of the middle ear. Definitive diagnosis is done by CT scan of the temporal bone, which will show the growth as well as any damage done to the mastoid bone. If there is damage to the bone, a tympanomastoidectomy becomes necessary.

During a tympanomastoidectomy, the surgeon must drill through the bone behind the ear and remove the mastoid bone and reconstruct the middle ear. Surprisingly, this can be done in some areas as an outpatient surgery, but usually requires no more than a 23-hour admission. Recovery is said to be about a week.

I am scheduled to undergo my tympanomastoidectomy in March.