Vascular tumors of the external auditory canal: three case reports and a review of the literature

BACKGROUND: Benign vascular tumors are frequently found in the head and neck, however, such tumors of the external auditory canal are extremely rare. We report three cases of benign vascular tumors limited to the external auditory canal. CASE DESCRIPTION: A 50-year-old woman was diagnosed during an episode of ear fullness and hearing loss. A 10-year-old boy consulted our department about an episode of recurrent otorrhagia. A 20-year-old man found a bulge of his external auditory canal by chance. Complete surgical resection was performed for the first patient. The second patient underwent electro-coagulation of the lesion. In the third patient, to exclude the possibility of a malignant tumor, a biopsy was performed under local anesthesia. Histopathological analysis demonstrated the characteristic of vascular tumors. The lesion showed remarkable reduction during his treatment with antibiotics and cleaning. He remains under careful observation. DISCUSSION AND EVALUATION: In diagnosis, there is sometimes confusion between vascular tumors and malformations. Generally, vascular malformations can be differentiated from vascular tumors since they are present at birth and are generally stable. CONCLUSION: Decision making about treatment of benign vascular tumors is sometimes confusing because of the difficulty in diagnosis. We performed biopsy for only one of our three cases because we regard that informal biopsy should not be conducted for lesions with difficult hemostic conditions and locations. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40064-015-1113-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.