Bilateral semicircular canal aplasia

Abstract

Introduction: Bilateral semicircular canal aplasia is extremely rare; discovery, when the cochlear-vestibular system is normal and there is no hearing loss, is serendipitous.

Case report: Bilateral semicircular canal aplasia was serendipitously discovered in a 24-year-old male during assessment of unilateral mixed hearing loss with subnormal contralateral hearing. The deformity was isolated, with no associated syndrome.

Discussion/conclusion: Incidence of this isolated entity is unknown, but doubtless greatly underestimated due to the absence of associated symptomatology. To the best of our knowledge, this is only the second report of bilateral aplasia of the entire semicircular canal system involving unilateral hearing loss. A review of the literature focuses on the embryological and molecular aspects.

Keywords: CHARGE syndrome; Congenital inner ear malformation; Semicircular canal aplasia.