Assessment of the Mastoid Pneumatization in Unilateral Chronic Otitis Media: Is the Underdeveloped Mastoid Air Cells a Cause or a Consequence of Otitis Media?

Lee, Dong Hee; Jun, Beom Cho; Lee, Jung Hak; Park, So Young; Lee, Dong Ho; Yeo, Sang Won

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
We evaluated the cause-and-effect relationship of the mastoid pneumatization and otitis media. SUBJECTS AND METHOD: We assessed the volume of the mastoid pneumatization and several parameters indicating the size of the temporal bone in healthy ears and ears with chronic otitis media (COM). Forty patients with unilateral COM were used for the study, and healthy subjects were chosen as control by matched sampling of corresponding age and sex. Assessment was performed using a quantitative digital image processing computed tomography program. RESULTS: In COM patients, the mastoid volume and one variable indicating the size of the temporal bone were greater on the healthy side than on the diseased side (p<0.05). However, there was no difference in measurements between healthy controls and either healthy or the diseased ears of COM patients (p>0.05). CONCLUSION: The mastoid size may be determined genetically, and environmental factors such as infection may also affect the mastoid size. However, this study supports that environmental factors mainly determine the degree of mastoid penumatization, rather than genetic factors, as far as COM is concerned.