Ear Surgery Video for Kids

Surgical Therapy Available for Chronic Ear Disease

If medical therapy is unsuccessful, or if the extend of the disease determined by your child's evaluation is thought to involve the mastoid, your doctor will discuss with you surgical therapy tailored specifically to your child. This therapy may be directed at the area just behind the ear drum or to the mastoid bone behind the ear, or both.

If an operation such as this is necessary, it is important for your to fully understand the complexity and the risks associated with these surgeries. Your doctor has been specifically trained to perform this surgery using microsurgical instruments on the ear and mastoid. This is done with a microscope. Many times, in order to successfully remove all the chronic disease in your child's ear, one of the ear bones will be disconnected to insure complete removal of disease and prevent further complications. Once your child's ear disease is under control, your doctor will be able to, in many instances, reconstruct the hearing bones and restore much of the hearing lost to the chronic ear infection.

If your child suffers from an extensive cholesteatoma, the standard of care involves removing the cholesteatoma during the first operation and having a follow up or "second look" operation approximately four to six months after the initial removal. At this time, your doctor will have the opportunity to reconstruct the ear if it is appropriate.

Your doctor will discuss with you the risks of the surgery and the possible complications. Depending on the type of operation performed, the risks of surgery may change, but basically include bleeding, infection, further hearing loss, dizziness, tinnitus (ringing in the ear), facial paralysis and deafness.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Chronic
• Ear
• Disease
• Mastoid
• Congenital
• Cholesteatoma