INTRATEMPORAL VASCULAR MALFORMATIONS (ANGIOMAS) - PARTICULAR CLINICAL-FEATURES

Vascular malformations (angiomas) represent 1% of all pathologies of t he temporal bone, including those of the cerebellopontine angle (CPA). We report six new cases of angiomas and compare them to the 48 cases listed in the literature published since 1949. Angiomas develop more f requently in the internal, auditory canal (IAC) and at the geniculate ganglion (GG). When present in the IAC, rapidly progressive hearing lo ss is found in 88% of the patients reported in the literature and in 1 00% of patients in our series; facial nerve dysfunction is found in 72 % and 60% of cases, respectively. The average tumour size is less than 10 mm. Acoustic neuroma, the most frequent tumour of this area, cause s a slowly progressive sensorineural hearing loss in 75% of cases and facial weakness in 0.8%, according to the literature. Only 10% of acou stic neuromas measure less than 10 mm. Angiomas differ from acoustic n euromas in their rapid onset of sensorineural deafness and much greate r incidence of facial nerve dysfunction despite a smaller tumour size.