Salivary Gland Choristoma of the Middle Ear

Taylor and Martin¹reported a benign salivary gland tumor of the middle ear causing a severe conductive hearing loss. Their case is the first to be recorded in the literature. Shortly after their report was published a patient with almost identical findings was operated on by one of us (WFH).

Report of Case

For 48 years, a 52-year-old white woman had been aware of a hearing loss in her right ear, which she attributed to scarlet fever. She had no symptoms referrable to the ears except for the hearing loss in her right ear. Her audiogram is shown in Figure 1. The left tympanic membrane was intact, translucent, and with normal drum landmarks present. The right drum was intact but opaque with a discrete whitish area in the posterior portion that was interpreted as indicative of tympanosclerosis. The Weber lateralized to the right; other tuning-fork tests confirmed the audiometric