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Myringoplasty is a surgical procedure to close the hole in the eardrum, also called eardrum perforation. Basically, the eardrum is a thin and sensitive tissue of your ear that is presents between the outer and middle ear, helping you to hear through vibrations. When the eardrum is ruptured, myringoplasty is used. In this process, the surgeon uses a small graft of tissue, usually from behind the ear, to close the rupture. This helps to improve hearing and prevent chronic infections.
Eardrum perforation can be caused by several reasons; it can be an accident or it can be an infection. Let’s discuss 5 common causes of eardrum perforation:
It is a common ear infection, particularly in children. This infection is commonly caused by bacteria and viruses of the ear, leading to the buildup of fluid and pus behind the eardrum. As the fluid increases, the pressure on the eardrum gets high until it ruptures.
Inserting unwanted objects that don’t belong in the body and irritating the eardrum with objects like pencils, paper clips, and cotton swabs can cause a rupture. This often occurs when someone bumps your arm while you’re cleaning your ear.
This is like a trauma of sudden and loud sounds. If a gunshot, blast, explosion, or very loud music produces extremely high sound waves, then it can rupture the eardrum. Moreover, it becomes a lifelong trauma for the person as he feels the intense wave coming from close range, which affects both his ears and brain.
This is pressure trauma, caused by high-pressure air or water. This only happens when the air between your outer ear and ear canal is not balanced. Mainly while scuba diving, mountain driving, or airplane travel, the pressure remains unbalanced, affecting the eardrum a lot.
When a person’s skull bone, or ear, is injured due to an accident, a strong slap, a punch, opening of an airbag in a car accident, causing eardrum perforation. This happens because these incidents create a sudden spike of pressure in the ear canal.
Ear perforation is a medical condition with various symptoms. The most common ones are mentioned below:
A rupture in the eardrum causes a sharp and irritating pain that feels like someone is pushing the eardrum with a needle. If the eardrum ruptures due to an infection, the pain is intense. However, once the eardrum ruptures, the pain subsides quickly as the pressure inside the ear decreases.
When the eardrum is infected or ruptured due to injury, it may produce fluid or blood. If you see blood, pus, or fluid draining from the ear canal, then it will be a symptom.
You may struggle with lower hearing in the affected ear. This happens because the eardrum is not capable of vibrating properly to transmit sound. In this condition, the hearing loss ranges from mild to moderate, depending on the size of the hole in the eardrum.
The ringing and buzzing sound in the ear is like the sound of cicada insects. This is also called ‘tinnitus’ and is one of the common symptoms of ear perforation. In this situation, the person feels like their ear is clogged.
Ear perforation is a medical condition that has an efficient surgical treatment called myringoplasty. Let’s discuss a step-by-step process of this surgical method:
First, the person is given general anesthesia, as surgical procedures need to be performed without pain and discomfort. The area around the ear is properly cleaned, and if hair is present, then they will be removed for proper access to the eardrum.
The surgeon or ENT specialist uses an operating microscope to get a clear vision of affected eardrum. Later, based on the size and location of the rupture, an incision is made behind the ear or within the ear canal.
The surgeon takes a small piece of tissue (graft) to repair the hole. This graft is taken from the thin layer of muscle tissue near the ear (temporalis fascia). Sometimes, the graft is also taken from the cartilage at the front of the ear, called the tragus.
The surgeon cleans the edges of the eardrum or removes the old skin to create a fresh one. Later, the patch is placed over the eardrum hole. The graft can be placed underneath the remaining eardrum, or it can be on top of the existing one.
For the inner eardrum packing, the special absorbent material such as, antibiotic soaked gelfoam, is filled in the ear canal. This material is filled to hold the graft for proper healing. If an incision is made near the ear, then it will be closed with stitches. On the outer ear, a bandage is applied for faster recovery.
The myringoplasty surgery procedure itself is not enough for ear perforation; you also need to follow the recovery rules to treat it effectively. Here are the recovery points:
Myringoplasty isn’t just a surgical procedure, but also a lifetime savior. From major issues like hearing loss to minor ones like buzzing in the ear, all are the symptoms of rupture eardrum. Especially in medical conditions like ear perforation, you must take care of small things like ear infection and bacteria. Choose the best ENT surgeon, like Dr. Vijay Gakhar, for myringoplasty surgery. As proper guidance and help of ENT specialist will result in successful treatment and faster recovery.
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