TUMORS INVOLVING THE PETROUS PYRAMID OF THE TEMPORAL BONE

Abstract

TUMORS involving the petrous pyramid of the temporal bone are relatively uncommon, present a wide variety of types and produce such a multiformity of subjective and objective symptoms that it was deemed advisable to report some of the more unusual cases observed at the University of Chicago Clinics in which the temporal bones were obtained for histopathologic examination. Such reports in the past have been rather infrequent, chiefly because of the tedious and complicated technics involved in preparing temporal bones for histopathologic studies. The temporal bone itself may be a primary site of origin for a new growth. The following types of tumors have been among those reported as primary in the temporal bone: meningioma (case 1), sarcoma (case 2), squamous cell carcinoma, plasma cell myeloma, hemangioma, epidermoid and dermoid,¹malignant melanoma,²cylinder cell epithelioma³and adenocarcinoma.⁴Jefferson and Whitehead⁵observed an interesting primary papilliferous cystoma in the petrosa consisting