CLINICAL DIAGNOSES ASSOCIATED WITH HISTOLOGIC-FINDINGS OF FIBROTIC TISSUE AND NEW BONE IN THE INNER-EAR

Fibrotic tissue or new bone occurs following inner ear inflammation, f racture, or surgery, The prevalence is unknown and was investigated us ing the National Temporal Bone, Hearing and Balance Pathology Resource Registry database, A search yielded 264 temporal bones with diagnoses of otosclerosis, tumor, Meniere's disease, meningitis, labyrinthitis, chronic otitis media, autoimmune disease, temporal bone fracture, or sensorineural hearing loss, All autoimmune cases contained some new bo ne, whereas only 20% to 30% of the labyrinthitis/meningitis cases were reported to contain new bone, Otosclerosis, Meniere's disease, and ot itis media had relatively few cases containing new bone. Although new bone may derive from surgical trauma, it is also likely to be a result of the disease process. It seems that all these disease processes may contain a common feature that acts as a stimulus to induce fibrosis o r bone growth in the inner ear.