Aberrant internal carotid artery causing objective pulsatile tinnitus and conductive hearing loss

Abstract

Aberrant internal carotid artery (ICA) in the middle ear is a rare, dangerous vascular anomaly and conservative follow-up was usually adopted in most reported cases. Here we report the case of an 8-year-old girl with symptoms of objective pulsatile tinnitus and conductive hearing loss in the right ear. Otoscopic examination, computed tomography, and conventional angiography were performed. An aberrant ICA combined with a ‘third mobile window’ was suspected preoperatively and confirmed at exploratory surgery of the middle ear. The aberrant ICA was treated, and the pulsatile tinnitus disappeared and hearing recovered after the surgery. This case suggests that surgery is practical to relieve troublesome tinnitus and hearing loss in appropriate cases with aberrant ICA.

Keywords::

• Vascular anomaly
• children
• third mobile window

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by research grants (nos 30572015, 30728030, and 31071109) from the Chinese National Nature Science Foundation (CNNSF) and a grant from the Chinese Minister of Health (no. 201202005) to Dr Pu Dai, from CNNSF (no. 30801285) and Beijing Nova Programme (no. 2009B34) to Dr Yong-yi Yuan, and from CNNSF (no. 81000415) and Beijing Nova Programme (no. 2010B081) to Dr Guo-jian Wang.

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.