Introduction Primary goal in surgical management of chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma is the creation of a dry, safe ear through removal of disease and prevention of recurrence. Canal wall up (CWU) techniques preserve the anatomy of the posterior canal wall, eliminating the need for periodic bowl cleaning and avoiding the risk of recurrent bowl infections. However, the recurrence rate may...

OBJECTIVES Chronic infection of the middle ear and cholesteatoma can be treated surgically by exenteration of the mastoid air cells behind the ear. After a procedure with the canal wall-down technique, a cavity remains that is sometimes difficult to clean, collects crust, and becomes repeatedly infected. Such problematic mastoid cavities can be eliminated by filling the created cavity surgicall...

OBJECTIVE A previous pilot series described a hybrid mastoidectomy technique, canal wall window (CWW), which substituted for the canal wall down (CWD) procedure and involved slitting the posterior canal wall. The current, larger series compares the results of the CWW procedure with conventional surgical techniques. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective analysis of 78 pediatric ears. SETTING Academic t...

OBJECTIVE To describe long-term outcomes of external auditory canal wall reconstruction using bioactive glass ceramic (Ceravital) after canal wall down mastoidectomy. DESIGN Retrospective review of a case series over a 21-year period, with a mean +/- SD follow-up of 13.1 +/- 6.7 years (range, 0.2-20.5 years). SETTING Private otologic practice. PATIENTS The study population comprised 20 co...

Introduction It is widely accepted that cholesteatoma almost invariably requires surgical management. There has been ongoing debate regarding the optimal technique since intact canal wall or canal wall up (CWU) mastoidectomy was developed in the decade following the widespread introduction of the operating microscope in 1953. At the time of the national comparative audit of mastoid surgery over...

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS To review which type of cholesteatoma surgery, canal wall up (CWU) or canal wall down (CWD), provides the lowest risk for residual and/or recurrent disease in adults with primary acquired cholesteatoma. DATA SOURCES PubMed, Embase, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library, Scopus and Web of Science. STUDY DESIGN We selected articles comparing CWU with CWD, reporting on disease rec...