da Costa Monsanto R, de Oliveira Penido N, Uchiyama M, et al. - In the present study, the researchers sought to determine whether or not chronic otitis media (COM) contributes to the loss of spiral and Scarpa ganglion neurons. They selected human temporal bones with COM, defined as the presence of clinically intractable tissue abnormalities in the middle ear (cholesteatoma, perforation of the eardrum, granulation tissue, fibrosis, tympanosclerosis, and cholesterol granuloma) from the human temporal bone (HTB) collection at the University of Minnesota. In addition, they selected HTBs from donors with no ear diseases as controls. The data presented in this work showed a significant negative correlation between age and number of both spiral and Scarpa ganglion cells in both COM and control groups. The findings showed no significant loss of cochlear or vestibular peripheral ganglion neuron loss in HTBs with COM as compared with controls.