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…

The canal wall-down (CWD) tympanomastoid scenario poses several unique challenges in the practice of otology. Although the question of when to perform CWD mastoidectomy is somewhat controversial, all otologists are…

The evolution of mastoidectomy has been a defining aspect of the development of modern otologic practice (see the historic review in Chapter 33). However, for a procedure that is often…