This chapter provides an overview of several important general principles that are highly relevant to the safe and efficient surgical management of chronic ear disease. Although a diversity of opinion…
Patient Selection The selection of the appropriate skull base approach depends on the type of lesion and location of the disease, as well as the hearing status and medical status…
Surgical management of stapes fixation is well defined for otosclerosis and congenital stapes fixation, with respectable results.1,2 However, the management of stapes fixation in chronic ear disease is more challenging,…
Prior to the commercial availability of antibiotics in the 1930s and 1940s, otologic surgeons were preoccupied with the treatment of life-threatening complications associated with acute and chronic ear disease. Mastoiditis…
The Eustachian tube in humans is a complex and dynamic organ with a small, but proportionately long, lumen and relatively weak muscles of dilation, all of which make it commonly…
As mentioned in Chapter 36, there has been a trend in the development of hybrid techniques that combine the advantages of canal wall-down and canal wall-up surgery for cholesteatoma. Many…
The major advantages of the canal wall reconstruction (CWR) procedure are that it provides the improved exposure to eradicate disease afforded by canal wall-down techniques and, when reconstructed, it provides…
Definitions Otitis media is defined as inflammation of the middle ear and mastoid, and the duration of the process defines the subtype: acute (<3 weeks), subacute (3–12 weeks), and chronic…
Myringitis is a poorly understood inflammatory disease of the tympanic membrane and external auditory canal. It has been referred to by other names in the literature, including granular myringitis, chronic…
Historical Perspective Prior to the modern era of antibiotics, otitis media was very often accompanied by deleterious outcomes, as evidenced by this quote from Hippocrates: “Acute pain of the ear…
