Introduction:

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a persistent inflammation of the middle ear, with cholesteatoma as one of its many complications. Cholesteatoma is a progressive, non-neoplastic formation of keratinized squamous epithelium that causes bone destruction in the middle ear. There are multiple theories that may explain its physiopathogenesis; however, none of them have been proved yet. Inflammatory mediators, such as interleukins (ILs), have a role in the genesis of the cholesteatoma and it is necessary to study their role in detail.

Objective:

The objective of this study was to compare the IL (IL-2 and IL-9) expression in patients with CSOM with and without cholesteatoma.

Methodology:

A cross-sectional study, comparing two groups of patients with CSOM, five of them without cholesteatoma and eleven with cholesteatoma. Samples of problem tissue (inflammatory tissue and cholesteatoma) and control tissue (retroauricular tissue for both groups) were studied. Histopathological and immunohistochemistry analyses were conducted, in addition to imaging and morphometric analysis was performed. The statistical comparison was performed by t-test for independent groups.

Conclusions:

There are statistical differences on the IL-2 and IL-9 expression in the cholesteatoma tissue compared with the inflammatory tissue.