Isolated congenital round window absence.
Absence of the round window as a congenital defect is a rare entity that causes a conductive hearing loss. To the best of our knowledge, isolated and nonsyndromal round window absence has only been reported 3 times; the diagnoses were made during surgery. We are reporting on another case that was diagnosed before operation by virtual endoscopy of the middle ear during a high-resolution computed tomography scan. Although this new technique requires further validation, it may be an alternative to surgery as a means of confirming this rare diagnosis.
Martin
Christian
C
Department of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Centre Hospitalier et Universitaire de Saint-Etienne, France.
Tringali
Stéphane
S
Bertholon
Pierre
P
Pouget
Jean-François
JF
Prades
Jean-Michel
JM
D000328:Adult; D004724:Endoscopy; D005260:Female; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000151:congenital* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D012405:Round Window, Ear / Q000002:abnormalities*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D014584:User-Computer Interface