Ganglioneuroma of the External Auditory Canal and Middle Ear

• Published in: Case reports in otolaryngology Vol. 2017; p. 4736895
• Main Authors: Almofada, Hesham Saleh, Timms, Michael Steven, Dababo, M Anas
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2017
• ISSN: 2090-6765
• DOI: 10.1155/2017/4736895

OBJECTIVEWe report an extremely rare case of ganglioneuroma involving the external auditory canal and middle ear. CASE REPORTGanglioneuromas are rare benign mature tumors thought to originate from sympathetic ganglions, with the highest incidence in the retroperitoneum, adrenal medulla, and posterior mediastinum. We present a case of ganglioneuroma of the external auditory canal and middle ear. At the age of 12 months, the patient was diagnosed with neuroblastoma stage IV with metastasis to the squamous temporal bone, bone marrow, and skull base. He received a high-risk protocol regimen resulting in complete remission. The patient later presented with recurrent right ear discharge at the age of six years and was diagnosed with ganglioneuroma of external auditory canal and middle ear after appropriate investigations. We report in this article the clinical presentation, investigations, surgical intervention, and follow-up. CONCLUSIONAfter the literature review and to our knowledge, this is the first reported case of its kind. Ganglioneuroma maturing from neuroblastoma is one of the theories describing pathophysiology of the disease. Ganglioneuroma should be considered in the differential diagnosis of patients presenting with recurrent ear discharge and decreased hearing in treated cases of neuroblastoma with metastases to temporal bone.