Eardrum Perforations

(Ruptured Eardrums)

A ruptured eardrum (tympanic membrane perforation) is a hole or tear in the thin tissue that separates your ear canal from your middle ear (eardrum).

A ruptured eardrum can result in hearing loss. It can also make your middle ear vulnerable to infections.

A ruptured eardrum usually heals within a few weeks without treatment. But sometimes it requires a patch or surgical repair to heal.

In-Office Tympanic Membrane Repair

Small holes in the eardrum, also called the tympanic membrane, may be treated in the office with a procedure called a “patch myringoplasty”. While some perforations in the eardrum heal naturally, those that show no signs of closing after about 3 months become candidates for myringoplasty. The “paper patch” of the procedure’s name is a literal reflection on how the treatment proceeds. A small piece of special paper placed over the perforation encourages natural healing of the hole. Other variations of myringoplasty may now use a gel foam or some fat taken from the patient’s ear to serve as the temporary patch.

Tympanoplasty

For more serious eardrum repairs, tympanoplasty augments the tissue of the eardrum with a transplant of tissue from another part of the body. Depending on the nature of the repair, the augmenting tissue may be placed on the outer side of the eardrum, through the ear canal, or it may be placed behind the eardrum through an incision made behind the ear. The tissue used is typically fascia or perichondrium, support tissues taken from under the skin.

Surgery often includes special packing to support the new tissue behind the ear during healing. The packing dissolves naturally over the next few months. Packing may also be placed in the ear canal, in front of the ear drum repair.