Case report

Metallic foreign body in middle ear: an unusual cause of hearing loss

Anna Eleftheriadou¹ , Thomas Chalastras¹ , Dionysios Kyrmizakis³ , Sotirios Sfetsos¹ , Konstantinos Dagalakis¹ and Dimitrios Kandiloros²

¹  Department of Otolaryngology, G. Gennimatas Hospital, Athens Greece

²  Department of Otolaryngology, University of Athens, Hippokration Hospital, Athens Greece

³  Department of Otolaryngology, General Hospital of Rethimno, Crete

author email corresponding author email

Head & Face Medicine 2007, 3:23doi:10.1186/1746-160X-3-23

Published:	16 May 2007

Abstract

This is a rare case report of a foreign metallic body found in the middle ear. During the use of an electric welding by a metalworker, a glowing drop of dissolved metal overrun, burning the skin of his external auditory meatus, perforated the tympanic membrane and finally was implanted around the ossicles as a foreign body. Due to difficulty of the physical examination and the moderate symptoms (hearing loss and sense of fullness), the foreign body was detected six months after the incident, by CT scanning and it was removed by a transcanal approach under general anesthesia. A successful ossiculoplasty-tympanoplasty was followed four weeks later.