CLINICAL CONSEQUENCES OF PETROUS APEX AERATION ABNORMALITIES
Y. Özkaptan, S. Yetişer, F. Tosun, M. Gerek
Gülhane Military Medical Academy Dept. ORL & HNS
06018 Etlik Ankara Türkiye
Abnormally aeration of the petrous apex is a rare radiological finding which has been described to present some clinical symptoms like facial hypalgesia, autophony and recurrent meningitis due to CSF leakage. It can be reasonable to assume that air cell tracts found in the petrous apex may produce some clinical signs since they are extension of middle ear cell tracts. However, it has been reported that asymmetric giants cells at the petrous apex with a diameter exceeding 1,5 cm could be found in less than 1 % of temporal tomographies taken for some reason. Thus this observation is an incidental radiological finding which is usually not attributed to the present situation and frequently neglected.
In an attempt to pursue the question of giant air cells at the petrous apex, we reviewed more than 400 temporal bone CT scannings and analyzed 12 cases with giant air cells at the petrous apex. It has been interestingly noted that those cases have different audiovestibular findings like sudden hearing loss, episodic vertigo with normal hearing, vertigo during physical activities, whispering noise in the ear etc. Coexistence of the symptoms and possible related physiopathologic mechanism has been discussed in this study.