Background: Benign osteoblastoma arising from the temporal bone is extremely rare in elderly patients. We reviewed the literature on benign osteoblastoma of the temporal bone and now propose a new classification of this pathologic entity based on its anatomical location in the temporal bone.
Case description: A 68-year-old woman presented with tinnitus and hearing disturbance with a duration of 1 year. Her neurologic examination revealed mixed hearing disturbance and hypogeusia. Preoperative computed tomography showed a bony destructive isodensity mass with calcified component involving the temporal bone. The FDG-PET scan showed high uptake on the lesion. After preoperative embolization on the day before surgery, the patient underwent tumor removal via a left infratemporal approach under neuronavigated guidance. The pathologic examination revealed a benign osteoblastoma.
Conclusion: We present the first case of FDG-PET showing high uptake on the lesion. Preoperative embolization is useful to reduce the amount of bleeding during the surgery.