Introduction: Although otolaryngology became a subspecialty only since the middle of the nineteenth century, many diseases of ENT system, their clinical symptoms, universality and potential seriousness have been described since over 3000 years ago. Texts of the medical school of Cos and its founder Hippocrates (460-370 BC) collected in the Corpus Hippocraticum also contain multiple case reports and treatments for ear diseases. The aim of this study is to analyse an extract of one of Hippocrates' treatise, which apparently describes the first case of cholesteotoma.
Material and methods: We analysed a case from Epidemic by Hippocrates (VII, V, 1-9) from its English translation.
Results: Analysis of the description of symptoms allows us to diagnose a complicated cholesteatoma with facial palsy and neuro-meningitis manifestation.
Conclusion: The meticulously detailed observations of the corpus give us a precious insight into the early perception of diseases and their evolution. The study of its history is of high interest to the fields of medicine, especially otorhinolaryngology. It also highlights the diseases and the suffering the diseases have inflicted on mankind since antiquity.
Keywords: Antiquity; Cholesteatoma; Hippocrate; Medical history.