ARTERIAL ANOMALIES OF THE MIDDLE-EAR ASSOCIATED WITH STAPES ANKYLOSIS

An aberrant internal carotid artery in a young woman complaining of pu lsatile tinnitus and conductive hearing loss was diagnosed pre-operati vely by CT scan and angiographic findings. An exploratory tympanotomy was performed in order to evaluate the cause of the severe conductive hearing loss. It was possible to detect a large persistent stapedial a rtery associated with a stapedial fixation of unknown cause. Despite t hese vascular anomalies a stapedotomy was performed successfully.