Cholesteatoma
Overview
A cholesteatoma is a build-up of dead cells inside your ear that can cause hearing loss, tinnitus, and dizziness. It's rare and can be treated with surgery.
Symptoms
A cholesteatoma is a growth that usually only affects the inside of 1 ear. Common symptoms may include: a watery, smelly, discharge that comes out of the eara gradual loss of hearing in the affected earpain in the affected ear Cholesteatoma can also cause: ear infections that keep coming backvertigotinnitusdamage to the facial nerve Rarely, a cholesteatoma infection can cause abrain abscessormeningitis.
Causes
A cholesteatoma can develop if your eardrum is damaged through injury, infection or after any kind of ear surgery. You can also be born with a cholesteatoma, but this is rare.
Treatment
You'll usually have surgery in hospital to remove a cholesteatoma. Surgery involves removing the build-up of dead skin cells while you're undergeneral anaesthetic. You may be able to go home the same day, or you may need to stay in hospital overnight. If there are any problems, you may have to stay in hospital for longer. If a cholesteatoma affects your hearing, surgery may help to improve it. Surgery does not always help, however, and your hearing may stay the same or, possibly, get worse. You may have stitches and packing in your ear to stop any bleeding. These will be removed after a few weeks. Most people take 6 to 8 weeks to fully recover after surgery, but you’ll still need long-term follow-up care to check there are no problems. If surgery did not completely remove the cholesteatoma, you may need another procedure.