Abstract: To improve the successful diagnosis rate of glomus jugulare tumor(GJT). MethodsClinical diagnosis, imaging diagnosis, and pre-operative pathological diagnosis were retrospectively analyzed in 47 GJT patients (18 males and 29 females) treated at our department from July 1987 to October 2006. ResultsIn this group, 34 patients failed to be diagnosed at the first time of medical consultation. The misdiagnosis ratio of the clinic, imaging and pathology was 34/47 (72.3%), 8/47 (17.0%) and 8/10 (80.0%). The disease was clinically misdiagnosed as chronic otitis media in 14/47 (29.8%), secretory otitis media 6/47(12.8%), external acoustic meatus mass 3/47(6.4%), nervous tinnitus 2/47 (4.3%), Bell′s palsy 2/47 (4.3%), chronic pharyngo-laryngitis 2/47 (4.3%), sensorineural deafness 2/47 (4.3%), vertigo 1/47 (2.1%), sudden hearing loss 1/47 (2.1%), and vocal cord paralysis 1/47 (2.1%). Pre-operative imaging studies were misdiagnosed as chronic otitis media in 7/47(14.9％) and hemangioma in 1/47(2.1％). The disease was pathologically misdiagnosed as inflammatory granulation tissue in 4 cases (40.0%), hemangioma in 2 (20.0%), inflammatory polyp in 1 (10.0%) and keratinized squamous epithelium in 1(10.0%). ConclusionsGJT is likely to be misdiagnosed. The main causes of misdiagnosis are: low incidence of the disease, nonspecific clinical symptoms and unawareness of the doctor. CT and MRI play important roles in diagnosis and also immunohistochemical analysis is beneficial in diagnosis and differential diagnosis of GJT.

Key words: Misdiagnosis, Diagnosis, Glomus jugulare tumor, differential