Ear Drum Repair

A perforation, which is a rupture or damage to the ear drum may cause your child to have hearing loss and requires special care to insure that water does not get in the ear canal. The condition can be intensified by infectious discharge that may enlarge the size of the hole in your child’s ear drum.

Common causes of ear drum perforation include:

Recurrent infection in the ear
Objects penetrating the ear drum
Hitting the outside of the ear
A history of ear tube insertion

Ear Drum repair involves surgical procedures in children to correct and repair the perforated ear drum. Some of the commonly used procedures for treating ear drum perforations include:

Myringoplasty/Paper Patch

Myringoplasty (Mer-RING-go-plas-tee) is one option for the repair of small holes in the ear drum. A small patch made of special paper is placed on top of the hole. The process usually takes 10-30 minutes to complete and is performed through the ear canal.

Myringoplasty/Fat Patch

This type of Myringoplasty uses a fat patch (a small piece of the child’s fat usually harvested from behind the ear or the back of the neck) instead of paper to seal the hole in the ear drum. The fat patch functions much like a paper patch. The fat graft can be used for small to medium sized holes in the ear drum and is also performed through the ear canal.

Tympanoplasty

Tympanoplasty (Tim-PAN-oh-plas-tee) is typically performed to repair larger holesin the ear drum. In this procedure, a graft from the patient’s own tissue is used to patch the hole. The entire process takes around 2-3 hours.Tympanoplasty is often recommended for larger holes or when previous myringoplasty procedures have failed to close the hole.

Ossicular Chain Reconstruction

A surgical treatment called Ossicular Chain Reconstruction is used if injury has occurred to the ossicles. The ossicles are three small bones positioned behind the ear drum that constitute the Ossicular Chain, these bones connect the ear drum to the inner ear. This surgery is used to reconstruct the ossicular chain and improve hearing. The surgery to reconstruct the ossicular chain is often completed during a “second-look” procedure to insure that there is no residual cholesteatoma.

Ossicular chain reconstruction by be completed by making an incision behind the ear or going through the ear canal to make the incisions. If the middle ear bones are damaged it may be possible to reposition the bones such that your child’s own ossicles are used to complete the reconstruction. If the ossicles or parts of the ossicles are absent and then they are replaced with a manmade prosthesis that is often constructed from titanium.

A prosthesis can be used to:

• Bridge a gap between damaged ossicles
• Bridge a gap from the ear drum to the residual ossicles (partial ossicular prosthesis)
• Bridge a gap from the ear drum directly to the inner ear (total ossicular prosthesis)