Medical Surgical Treatment at the Ear, Nose and Throat Department (ENT)

Medical/Surgical Evaluation & Treatment

Medical and surgical procedures for certain types of hearing loss are provided by PAMF's Department of Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT). A complete hearing evaluation by an audiologist is required before you can schedule a consultation with an ENT physician. If further diagnostic tests such as an MRI are necessary, your physician will order them.

Conditions such as otosclerosis, cholesteatoma, eardrum perforation and chronic otitis media (ear infection) can be treated effectively through medical or surgical treatment. In children, the most common surgery is for insertion of tubes into the eardrum to help prevent chronic fluid buildup in the middle ear.

Surgical Therapies

Surgical correction of hearing loss is often a possibility in cases of conductive hearing loss. Listed below are examples of surgical procedures performed by the ENT surgeons at PAMF.

Ventilation (or PE) Tube Placement: PE tubes are commonly placed in the eardrums of children or adults with recurrent middle-ear infections, or in cases where middle-ear fluid persists, resulting in hearing loss.

Tympanoplasty: The eardrum can be perforated from chronic ear disease or following a traumatic accident. A tympanoplasty is a surgical procedure to repair the eardrum.

Middle-Ear Surgery: Sound is transmitted through the middle ear by a series of bones called the ossicular chain. Disruption or fixation of the ossicular chain can result in surgically correctable hearing loss.

Stapedotomy - Otosclerosis is one example of a middle-ear disease that affects the ossicular chain. Otosclerosis results in fixation of the stapes, the third middle-ear bone. Restoration of hearing is possible by performing a stapedotomy, in which a hole at the base of the stapes is opened and a prosthesis is placed.

Mastoidectomy: In patients with chronic ear disease, the mastoid bone and air cells may need to be surgically opened with a procedure called a mastoidectomy.