Recurrent ear discharge, pain and hearing loss are the most common symptoms. The ear discharge and pain are due to infection and hearing loss due to perforation of the eardrum and occasionally, erosion of the ossicles in the middle ear.
Part of the skin of the ear grows into the bone of the middle ear in someone with a cholesteatoma. With chronic infection and as the cholesteatoma grows, it can cause chronic ear discharge, hearing loss, facial paralysis and even meningitis and brain abscess.
