Cochlea-Facial Nerve Dehiscence: Third Window Syndrome After A Car Accident
Channel: EarInformation
Date: 2019-04-07

This patient developed third window syndrome (TWS) symptoms experienced after a motor vehicle accident. Her third window is a left cochlea-facial nerve dehiscence. She had left round window reinforcement surgery on 8 May 2018. Normally the round window and the oval window serve as the natural two windows of the inner ear. Since plugging the cochlea-facial nerve dehiscence could result in a paralyzed face and deafness on that side, the round window that is easily accessed through the middle ear was stiffened to go from three windows to two again. Patients with TWS can experience sound-induced dizziness (otolithic [gravity receptor] asymmetry type of vertigo), ability to hear internal sounds unusually well (such as voice resonating, heartbeat, eyes moving or blinking [1/3 of such patients), cognitive dysfunction, spatial disorientation, anxiety, migraine headaches, any of the three variants of migraine (vestibular migraine, ocular migraine and hemiplegic migraine) and nausea. She describes the third window syndrome symptoms that she had before surgery and the resolution of symptoms reflecting the outcomes of surgery.