Purpose
A large vestibular aqueduct (LVA) or largeendolymphatic duct is one of the most common radiological findings in patients with inner ear malformations.Since the first radiological description by Valvassori and Clemis on polytomographic images in 1978 many authors have been reported cases which were detected on computed tomography (CT) and/or magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (1, 2, 5, 7, 8). Nevertheless, especially in the case of an isolated LVA this diagnosis is quite often missed in routine work.The vestibular aqueductis a bony canal that extends from the...
Methods and Materials
We retrospectively reviewed all MRI and CT investigations that were performed in patients with SNHL under the suspicion of an inner ear malformation. From 1994 to 2001, 110 patients underwent imaging at the radiological department of the university of Leipzig and from 1997 to 2002, 59 patients at the radiological department of the university of Halle.CT was performed with a slice thickness of 1 mm or 0.5mm in single slice technique on Somatom Plus S (Siemens), in spiral technique on Somatom Plus 4 (Siemens) ore...
Results
Clinical data:Using the radiological material from 169 patients with SNHL, we identified 17 patients (12 females, 5 males in the age of 1 to 66 years, mean age 18,2 years) with LVA. 13 patients were under 18 years.Audiometric data were available in all patients, representing 34 ears: - normal hearing: 5 ears - deafness: 5 ears- severe (60-80 dB) SNHL: 16 ears- moderate (50-59 dB) SNHL: 7 ears- mild (30> 49 dB) SNHL: 1 ear. The age of onset of HL was known in 15...
Conclusion
The earliest description of a LVA went back to Carlos Mondini in 1791. The combination of LVA as radiological finding and SNHL as functional finding is a well known since the first description by Valvasorri and Clemis in 1978 (1). In our population we identified 17 cases with LVA among 169 studied patients (10 %), 58 % of them showed a progressive SNHL. These percentages are in agreement with several other reports (2, 9). The imaging findings on CT and MRI are diagnostic in LVA....
References
1: Valvassori GE, Clemis JD. The large vestibular aqueduct syndrome. Laryngoscope. 1978 May;88(5):723-8.2: Okumura T, Takahashi H, Honjo I, Takagi A, Mitamura K. Sensorineural hearing loss in patients with large vestibular aqueduct. Laryngoscope. 1995 Mar;105(3 Pt 1):289-93; discussion 293-4.3: Park AH, Kou B, Hotaling A, Azar-Kia B, Leonetti J, Papsin B. Clinical course of pediatric congenital inner ear malformations.Laryngoscope. 2000 Oct;110(10 Pt 1):1715-9.4: Davidson HC, Harnsberger HR, Lemmerling MM, Mancuso AA, White DK, Tong KA, Dahlen RT, Shelton C.MR evaluation of vestibulocochlear anomalies associated with...
Personal Information
Beatrice Amaya, Halle PD. Dr. Sabrina Ksling, HalleWeb site: http://www.medizin.uni-halle.de/kdr
