[Advantage of virtual endoscopy in the evaluation of the ossicular chain].

Purpose: Our study consists of a comparison of traditional computed tomography (CT) data sets with 2 views of virtual endoscopy in the preoperative evaluation of various diseases of the middle ear.
Materials and Methods: We studied 59 patients, all sent for conductive hearing loss with normal eardrum who underwent a complete CT examination: axial helical acquisition and coronal incremental acquisition: virtual endoscopy with selection of two reproducible views: an external one of the auditory canal and a lower one of the hypotympanum. Reading was performed by 2 independent radiologists. All patients were subsequently operated by the same surgeon. Results were compared with surgical reports.
Result: Virtual endoscopy is valuable for the evaluation of ossicular and prosthesis dislocations, morphological anomalies of the malleus, incus, and stapes superstructure. Nevertheless, standard axial and coronal CT images remain necessary as confirmed by the poor results of virtual endoscopy in cases of attic obstruction, cholesteatomas and otospongiosis.
Conclusion: Virtual endoscopy is a valuable technique of the evaluation of some ossicular chain pathologies but it cannot be used alone.