The aim of this study was to review recent advances in the management of acquired cholesteatoma. All papers referring to acquired cholesteatoma management were identified in Medline via OVID (1948 to December 2013), PubMed (to December 2013), and Cochrane Library (to December 2013). A total of 86 papers were included in the review. Cholesteatoma surgery can be approached using either a canal wall up (CWU) or canal wall down (CWD) mastoidectomy with or without reconstruction of the middle ear cleft. In recent decades, a variety of surgical modifications have been developed including various "synthesis" techniques that combine the merits of CWU and CWD. The application of transcanal endoscopy has also recently gained popularity; however, difficulties associated with this approach remain, such as the need for one-handed surgery, the inability to provide continuous irrigation/suction, and limitations regarding endoscopic accessibility to the mastoid cavity. Additionally, several recent studies have reported successes in the application of laser-assisted cholesteatoma surgery, which overcomes the conflicting goals of eradicating disease and the preservation of hearing. Nevertheless, the risk of residual disease remains a challenge. Each of the techniques examined in this study presents pros and cons regarding final outcomes, such that any pronouncements regarding the superiority of one technique over another cannot yet be made. Flexibility in the selection of surgical methods according to the context of individual cases is essential in optimizing the outcomes.

Background Pure-tone screening (PTS) is considered as the gold standard for hearing screening programs in school-age children. Mobile devices, such as mobile phones, have the potential for audiometric testing. Objective This study aimed to demonstrate a new approach to rapidly screen hearing status and provide stratified test values, using a smartphone-based hearing screening app, for each screened ear of school-age children. Method This was a prospective cohort study design. The proposed smartphone-based screening method and a standard sound-treated booth with PTS were used to assess 85 school-age children (170 ears). Sound-treated PTS involved applying 4 test tones to each tested ear: 500 Hz at 25 dB and 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, and 4000 Hz at 20 dB. The results were classified as pass (normal hearing in the ear) or fail (possible hearing impairment). The proposed smartphone-based screening employs 20 stratified hearing scales. Thresholds were compared with those of pure-tone average (PTA). Results A total of 85 subjects (170 ears), including 38 males and 47 females, aged between 11 and 12 years with a mean (SD) of 11 (0.5) years, participated in the trial. Both screening methods produced comparable pass and fail results (pass in 168 ears and fail in 2 ears). The smartphone-based screening detected moderate or worse hearing loss (average PTA>25 dB) accurately. Both the sensitivity and specificity of the smartphone-based screening method were calculated at 100%. Conclusions The results of the proposed smartphone-based self-hearing test demonstrated high concordance with conventional PTS in a sound-treated booth. Our results suggested the potential use of the proposed smartphone-based hearing screening in a school-age population.

HRCT has high specificity (100%) but low sensitivity (46%) for the diagnosis of otosclerosis in Taiwanese patients despite progress in radiology. The low image positive rate we found, compared with that in Western literature, may stem from a greater percentage of inactive otosclerosis.

The Kaplan-Meier survival analysis method should be used when discussing recidivism rates, because the number of censored cases inevitably increases with observation time. Due to the late occurrence of recidivism and because the recidivism rate increases as time goes on, children should be periodically followed up for as long as possible.

No abstract