“…AEs are generally bilateral and continuously growing bone formations. Although some previous studies considered AE to be a genetic anomaly or epigenetic variation (Berry & Berry, ), others have evaluated it as a pathological formation (Ascenzi & Balistreri, ; Frayer, ; Harrison, ; Hirose, Shikino, & Ikusaka, ; Manzi, Aperduti, & Passarello, ; Okumura, Boyadjian, & Eggers, ; Özbek, ; Velasco‐Vazquez, Betancor‐Rodriguez, Arnay‐de‐la‐Rosa, & Gonzalez‐Reimers, ). Proposed aetiologies include otitis, chronic infections, eczema, mechanical or chemical traumas, thermic shock, and any other pathological state affecting the normal homoeostasis of the external auditory canal (DiBartolomeo, ; Hutchinson et al, ; Kennedy, ; Mazza, ; Okuyama, Baba, Ojiri, & Nakajima, ; Sheehy, ; Timofeev, Notkina, & Smith, ).…”