We report a case of post-traumatic cholesteatoma of the external auditory canal (EAC). A 27-year-old man visited our clinic with the complaints of right otalgia and otorrhea. His EAC was stenotic and CT scan revealed a fracture of EAC due to the traffic accident in which he had been involved 7 years prior to the visit to our clinic. The surgery revealed the presence of cholesteatoma behind the stenotic area which extended to the tympanic cavity. The postoperative course was uneventful and there is no sign of recurrence in a 6 month follow-up study.
Post-traumatic cholesteatoma is uncommon, especially when the obstruction of EAC is incomplete. The most possible explanation for the generation mechanism of cholesteatoma in the present case is the disturbance of the epithelial migration secondary to the post-traumatic deformity in EAC.