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Signs and symptoms

If untreated, a cholesteatoma can eat or cause erosion of the three small bones located in the middle ear (the malleus, incus and stapes, collectively called ossicles). This can result in nerve deterioration, imbalance, vertigo, and deafness early in the disease. It can also affect and erode, through the enzymes it produces, the thin bone structure that isolates the top of the ear from the brain, as well as lay the covering of the brain open to infection with serious complications (rarely even death due to brain abscess and sepsis).