Micro Ear Surgery

Micro Ear Surgery

Micro ear surgery is a procedure performed to treat diseases, deformations. or injuries of the ear with an operating microscope to enable the surgeon to view the very small structures of the ear.

Ear problems are quite common today – be it blocked ears, hearing loss, infection, discharge from ears or other problems. There is no age bar for ear infections. From infants as young as one month old to the elderly as old as 90 years can be susceptible.

Purpose

Ear surgery is performed to treat diseases, deformations. or injuries of the ear’s auditory tube, inner ear, middle ear, and auditory and vestibular systems, and to correct certain types of hearing loss.

Surgery may also be required to remove multiple bony overgrowths of the ear canal or to narrow the tube, in rare cases of compromised auditory tube function.

Micro ear surgeries are commonly performed to treat persistent ear infections, unhealed and perforated eardrums, conductive hearing loss, congenital ear defects, and tumors. In some cases, when more conservative medical treatments fail, surgery can be the only option.

Common types of micro ear surgeries include tympanoplasty, a procedure performed to repair a perforated eardrum, certain cosmetic ear surgeries like Otoplasty are also performed. Otoplasty is the surgical reshaping of the pinna or outer ear, typically performed to reduce the size of large ears, or to set prominent ears back closer to the head.

A person who was born with a congenital anomaly or has sustained damage to their ears may choose to undergo reconstructive surgery.  The aim may be to improve appearance or to correct an irregularity.

Micro Ear Surgeries performed at Dr Aravind’s ENT and EYE Hospital include

• Myringoplasty – It is a surgery done to repair the perforated eardrum.
• Tympanoplasty – It is a surgery performed to repair the perforated eardrum and hearing loss due to middle ear disease.
• Tympanomastoidectomy – It is a surgical procedure performed to remove cholesteatoma (an abnormal, noncancerous skin growth in the middle ear).
• Ossiculoplasty – It is a surgery performed for the reconstruction of the ossicular chain in the middle ear to improve hearing by using the patient’s own ossicles (any of the three tiny bones in the middle ear) and reshaping them or cartilage, PORP, TORP.
• Stapedotomy – It is a surgery done to improve hearing when footplate bone is fixed in position, rather than being normally mobile, leading to conductive hearing loss. This is performed with the help of a microscope and a laser.
• Intratympanic steroid injections – for Idiopathic (unknown cause) sudden sensorineural hearing loss.