Having my ear surgery

well, just to inform u guys.. i will going for an ear surgery this thurs - 17th april. Why do i need to do so? Cuz the doctor said i have Cholesteatoma. He said luckily i did regular follow up and he managed to detect this on a fairly early stage. Anyway, wish me luck and hopefully the surgery will be smooth n good. ^^

anyway, i went to search abit on Cholesteatoma. Here are some few sites

http://www.earsite.com/tumors/cholesteatoma.html

http://www.earsurgery.org/cholest.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholesteatoma

[If you are lazy to click and read the whole chunk... i took out the main important parts and compile JUST for you all ^^. ]

Cholesteatoma

It is a benign growth of skin in an abnormal location such as the middle ear or petrous apex.

The bone behind the ear is called the mastoid bone. It connects to the middle ear. In a healthy ear, it is filled with air. In most cases of cholesteatoma, the mastoid bone is filled with irritated mucous membranes and cholesteatoma itself often grows into this bone.

There are two types: congenital and acquired. Acquired cholesteatomas can be caused by a tear or retraction of the ear drum. For my case i think mine is congenital - born like this.

Complications from untreated cholesteatoma

Erosion of the ossicles or bones behind the eardrum can lead to a conductive hearing loss. The bone over the facial nerve can also be destroyed and a facial paralysis can result.

Surgical Outcomes

Whenever surgery is performed for cholesteatoma, there are three possible results of surgery depending on what is found during the operation.

If the cholesteatoma is small and can be removed entirely in one piece, the eardrum and the ossicles are reconstructed all in one operation.

If the cholesteatoma can be removed only in pieces, there is always a chance cholesteatoma fragments left behind may regrow at a later time. In this case it is doctors' preference to have a "2nd look" op, where they will have another op to see whether is there any regrowth of the Chlesteatoma.

If the cholesteatoma is rather extensive and adherent to the inner ear or facial nerve, it may not be possible to remove the entire cholesteatoma and a radical mastoidectomy is performed. In short, it will be quite a bad case and complex stuff needs to be done.

Even after careful microscopic surgical removal, 10% to 20% of cholesteatomas may recur, which then require follow-up checks and/or treatment.