What The Heck is MYRINGOTOMY ?

Facts About MYRINGOTOMY

When I first came across this word I thought it is a combined word of "my ring go to my" and it is ring tone related. Well how very wrong I am. Myringotomy is actually a surgery procedure to relief build up fluid pressure in the ear.

Well this is done as the Eustachian tube is not functioning well. As we know the Eustachian tubes are responsible for the balancing of air pressure between the outside and inner and middle ear. Beside it is also for draining out excess fluid.

The procedure is done whereby a tiny incision is made in the eardrum for the purpose of relieving pressure caused by the too much stock-up of fluid. This is often done as a treatment due to an inflammation of the ear of middle ear infection known as otitis.

If myringotomy is intended to drain or ventilate the middle ear, it usually implies that the Eustachian tube is not able to perform such function in its usual physiologic fashion. It was actually the chief treatment of severe acute otitis media prior to the invention of antibiotics.

Below is a video link to Myringotomy surgery


MyRingotomy Surgery

And according to this article in http://mediahangout.blogspot.com/2009/01/facts-about-myringotomy.html

Ordinarily, the eardrum heals within two weeks or so save when a tube is inserted into the opening that was made or unless the opening is made through a laser. Myringotomy coupled with tube insertion is performed for the relief of otitis media since it can permit external ventilation of the middle ear space for weeks, months or even years.

This surgical procedure is a microsurgical procedure performed very briefly and can be on an outpatient basis, absent the necessity for a general anaesthetic in co-operative adults. However, there is still a requirement for a short general anaesthetic for tube insertion when performed on children.

Middle ear infections commonly occur in children when he has repeated ear infections or fluid stock-up in the ears which do not go away easily or that cause hearing problems or speech delays. Hence, doctors may suggest the myringotomy.

The complications which usually arises in most cases of myringotomy and tube placement embrace early extrusion of the tube and failure of a eardrum to heal after the tube has fallen out. It is in infrequent that the tube is able to extrude inward into the middle ear or mastoid and thus, be kept. When these complications arise, there must additional procedures to be performed in order to cure the same.

Some other complications include failure to resolve the ear infections, the thickening of the eardrum over time, which affects hearing in a small percentage of patients, infection, hearing loss, scarring of the eardrum, possible need to keep the ear dry and to use ear plugs, and foreign body reaction to the tube itself like an allergic reaction to the tube material.