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This was a 62-year-old man who presented with a soft

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tissue mass in the right external auditory canal.

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On this case, it's a little bit subtle to identify,

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but the thickening that is demonstrated along the

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posterior margin of the bony portion of the right

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external auditory canal was the abnormality.

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You also notice that there is a little bit of

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thickening right at the posterior attachment

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of the tympanic membrane.

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This is the pars tensa of the tympanic membrane.

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What was demonstrated better on these soft tissue

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windows was the fact that there was a soft tissue mass

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that was seen that was growing from the surface of the

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cartilaginous portion of the external auditory canal,

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deep in the subcutaneous tissue,

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in the submucosal tissue,

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which led to that component that was extending along

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the bony portion of the external auditory canal.

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If you compare the density of this tissue that I'm

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describing on the right side with the normal tissue

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that is seen on the left side,

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with the subcutaneous fat,

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you see that it is of increased density.

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This was a patient who had squamous cell carcinoma

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that was moderately differentiated along

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the external auditory canal,

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both the cartilaginous as well as the bony portion.

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Now, with that history and diagnosis,

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you can go back and start to worry about some of these

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subtle areas of bony discontinuity that's present.

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I'm just going to magnify this up and in retrospect,

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we might want to look at some of the defects that can

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occur right along the posterior margin of that

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external auditory canal. So in point of fact,

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this patient did have a partial temporal bone

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resection in addition to the resection

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of the primary tumor.

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And they did find squamous cell carcinoma growing into

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the periosteum of the posterior temporal bone.