Cholesteatoma surgery has traditionally been associated with a very high recurrence rate of 30-50%. Many patients have to undergo multiple procedures to clear the disease process. Often times, surgeons perform a planned “second look” operation 6-12 months after the initial procedure to check for recurrence.

Generally, cholesteatoma surgery has been performed in a canal wall up or canal wall down approach. A novel procedure developed at UC Irvine has combined the best features of both procedures. This procedure, termed partial canal wall down mastoidectomy with obliteration, when combined with otoendoscopy has reduced the recurrence rate to 3% in a population of 91 patients with a five-year follow up. The results of this study recently presented by Dr. Hamid Djalilian and team at the American Academy of Otolaryngology annual meeting in Nashville showed that this procedure allows preservation of the normal ear canal anatomy.