Animal Models of Middle Ear Cholesteatoma

Table 1

Comparison of advantages among experimental cholesteatoma models.

	Purpose of analysis	Specie	Surgery	Percentage of cholesteatoma occurrence	Advantage
(1) Ligation of the external ear canal	Epithelial migration theory	Mongolian gerbil	Easy	High	Easy to handle
(2) Eustachian tube blocking	Retraction pocket theory	Mongolian gerbil	Slightly difficult	Moderate	Useful for analysis of inflammatory mediators
(3) Chemical injection into the middle ear	Cholesteatomatous chronic otitis media	Chinchilla Guinea-pig Rat	Easy	High	Useful for administering study
(4) Biological material injection into the middle ear	Immigration theory	Mongolian gerbil Guinea-pig Rat	Slightly difficult	Moderate	Useful for analysis of immigratrion theory
(5) Autologous dermal implantation	Bone destruction	Mouse	Slightly difficult	High	Useful for investigate pathological mechanism of bone destruction
(6) Local hybrid ear model	Origin of the epithelial cells of cholesteatoma	Mongolian gerbil	Difficult	High	Can demonstrate the origin of the cells of cholesteatoma correctly