Perilymphatic fistula.A 54-year-old woman was admitted to the emergency room for an isolated episode of acute vertigo that was accompanied by nausea and dizziness. Since the onset of an upper respiratory infection 2 weeks earlier, she had experienced the vertigo every time she blew her nose. She also complained of the recent onset of bilateral tinnitus 12 years earlier, she had undergone surgery for right otosclerosis otosclerosis: see deafness. , and until the tinnitus occurred, her hearing had been stable. Otoscopic examination of the right tympanic membrane had revealed a displaced Teflon prosthesis that had come into contact with the eardrum ear·drum n. The thin, semitransparent, oval-shaped membrane that separates the middle ear from the external ear. Also called drum, drumhead, drum membrane, myringa, myrinx, tympanic membrane, (figure 1). Audiometry detected a sensorineural hearing loss Sensorineural hearing loss Hearing loss caused by damage to the nerves or parts of the inner ear governing the sense of hearing. Mentioned in: Tinnitus sensorineural hearing loss at 30 dB. Computed tomography (CT) of the temporal bone showed pneumolabyrinth secondary to penetration of air into the vestibule and subluxation subluxation /sub·lux·a·tion/ (sub?luk-sa´shun) 1. incomplete or partial dislocation. 2. in chiropractic, any mechanical impediment to nerve function; originally, a vertebral displacement believed to impair nerve of the prosthesis (figure 2, A and B). [FIGURES 1-2 OMITTED] Three days later, the patient recovered completely. Temporal bone CT 3 weeks later showed a complete resorption of the pneumolabyrinth (figure 2, C). The features of this case are consistent with a perilymphatic perilymphatic /peri·lym·phat·ic/ (-lim-fat´ik) 1. pertaining to the perilymph. 2. around a lymphatic vessel. per·i·lym·phat·ic adj. 1. fistula, which was caused by the high level of pressure generated by the nose blowing. |
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