Clinical Study on the Reliable Temporal Bone Fracture Classification Scheme

Park, Sang Yoo; Yang, Jong Won; Kim, Sung Il; Kwon, Jang Woo; Sung, Ki Jun

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Until now, the temporal bone fracture patient has been classified mostly according to the classic definition of transverse or longitudinal one, but it is often obscure and has problems of discrepancy in correlation with otologic symptoms. So we investigated the practicality of other noticeable reporting schemes for reasonable adoption.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD
We thoroughly reviewed the medical records of the temporal bone fracture patients in past two years. And high resolution CT images were also re-evaluated by the senior radiologist using traditional and newer (otic capsule sparing vs. otic capsule violating, petrous vs. nonpetrous) classification schemes.
RESULTS
A total of 61 cases were identified as temporal bone fracture. Among various symptoms, only sensorineural hearing loss was significantly higher in the transverse type of traditional scheme and in otic capsule violating fracture. Symptoms such as subjective and verified hearing loss including conductive hearing loss and ear fullness were higher in nonpetrous fracture (p<0.05).
CONCLUSION
Traditional and otic capsule scheme correlated poorly with clinical presentation, whereas the petrous classification was better matched with main symptoms. Therefore, the petrous scheme was suggested as the more discriminative classification plan of temporal bone fracture to predict its sequela.