Objective:To determine the association of demographic profiles and clinical characteristics of patients with aural foreign bodies seen at the Emergency Room (ER) of the East Avenue Medical Center with clinical outcomes

Methods:
Design:Cross-Sectional Study
Setting:Tertiary Government Training Hospital
Participants:A total of 143 aural foreign body cases seen at the ER from January to December 2022 under the Department of Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery (ORL-HNS) of East Avenue Medical Center were included in the study.

Results: Of the 143 patients, majority (84; 58.74%) were males. Mean age was 21.92 years old with two peak incidences noted at ages 1-12 years old and 18-65 years old. Most of the patients were right-handed (134; 93.71%). Majority of the foreign bodies were animate (76; 53.15%) and were frequently found to be lodged on the right ear (86; 60.14%) with duration from lodgment to
extraction commonly within less than 24 hours (119; 83.22%). One hundred forty two (99.30%) patients had successful foreign body extraction, 60 (41.96%) had complications, specifically involving the external auditory canal (51; 35.66%) and tympanic membrane (6; 4.20%). Significant associations were found between age and type of foreign body [χ2 (3, N =143) = 31.24, p < .01] with a higher proportion of animate foreign bodies in adults and inanimate foreign bodies in children; sex and presence of complications [χ²(1, N = 143) = 5.41, p < .05] with males experiencing more complications than females; type and duration of foreign body [, χ²(2, N = 143) = 16.33, p < .01] with animate foreign bodies generally having a shorter duration of less than 24 hours compared to inanimate foreign bodies; and the duration of foreign body and presence of TM complications [χ²(4, N = 143) = 14.21, p < .01] with shorter durations (less than 24 hours) showing fewer TM complications. Males had higher odds of developing complications compared to females (OR = 2.315, 95% CI [1.105, 4.851])

Tympanosclerosis is the hyaline degeneration and calcium deposition of the lamina propria of tympanic membrane and the submucosa of middle ear under long-term chronic inflammatory stimulation. At present, treatment primarily involves the surgical removal of sclerotic foci and reconstruction of auditory ossicular chain. However, excision of sclerotic lesions near critical structures like the facial nerve canal and vestibular window may result in complications like facial paralysis, vertigo, and sensorineural hearing loss. Developing safer and more effective treatments for tympanosclerosis has become an international research focus. Recent years have seen novel explorations in the treatment of tympanosclerosis. Therefore, this article reviews the latest advancements in research on the treatment of tympanosclerosis.
Humans ; Tympanoplasty ; Ear, Middle ; Ear Ossicles/surgery* ; Tympanic Membrane/surgery* ; Tympanosclerosis

Necrotizing otitis externa is a progressive infectious disease involving the external auditory canal and even the skull base, which can lead to serious complications and even death if not treated in time. In this paper, the latest advances in etiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations, diagnosis and treatment were reviewed based on previous literature, providing reference for clinical diagnosis, treatment and future research.
Humans ; Otitis Externa/therapy* ; Skull Base/pathology* ; Ear Canal/pathology* ; Head

Objective: To analyze the clinical characteristics and treatment of middle ear myoclonus. Methods: Fifty-six cases of middle ear myoclonus were enrolled in Shandong Provincial ENT Hospital, Shandong University from September 2019 to August 2021, including 23 males and 33 females. The age ranged from 6 to 75 years, with a median age of 35 years; Forty-seven cases were unilateral tinnitus, nine cases were bilateral tinnitus. The time of tinnitus ranged from 20 days to 8 years. The voice characteristics, inducing factors, nature (frequency) of tinnitus, tympanic membrane conditions during tinnitus, audiological related tests, including long-term acoustic tympanogram, stapedius acoustic reflex, pure tone auditory threshold, short increment sensitivity test, alternate binaural loudness balance test, loudness discomfort threshold, vestibular function examination, facial electromyography, and imaging examination were recorded. Oral carbamazepine and/or surgical treatment were used. The patients were followed up for 6-24 months and the tinnitus changes were observed. Results: Tinnitus was diverse, including stepping on snow liking sound, rhythmic drumming, white noise, and so on. The inducing factors included external sound, body position change, touching the skin around the face and ears, speaking, chewing and blinking, etc. Forty-four cases were induced by single factor and 9 cases were induced by two or more factors. There was no definite inducing factor in 1 case. One patient had tinnitus with epilepsy. One case of traumatic facial paralysis after facial nerve decompression could induce tinnitus on the affected side when the auricle moved. Tympanic membrane flutter with the same frequency as tinnitus was found in 12 cases by otoscopy, and the waveform with the same frequency as tinnitus was found by long-term tympanogram examination. There were 7 patients with no tympanic membrane activity by otoscopy, the 7 cases also with the same frequency of tinnitus by long-term tympanogram examination, but the change rate of the waveform was faster than that of the patients with tympanic membrane flutter. All patients with tinnitus had no change in hearing. One case of tinnitus complicated with epilepsy (a 6-year-old child) was treated with antiepileptic drug (topiramate) and tinnitus subsided. One case suffered from tinnitus after facial nerve decompression for traumatic facial paralysis was not given special treatment. Fifty-four cases were treated with oral drug (carbamazepine), of which 10 cases were completely controlled and 23 cases were relieved; 21 cases were invalid. Among the 21 patients with no effect of carbamazepine treatment, 8 patients were treated by surgery, 7 patients had no tinnitus after surgery, 1 patient received three times of operation, and the third operation was followed up for 6 months, no tinnitus occurred again. The other 13 cases refused the surgical treatment due to personal reasons. Conclusions: Middle ear myoclonus tinnitus and the inducing factors manifestate diversity. Oral carbamazepine and other sedative drugs are effective for some patients, and surgical treatment is feasible for those who are ineffective for medication.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Aged ; Child ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Middle Aged ; Young Adult ; Ear, Middle/surgery* ; Hearing Tests ; Myoclonus/complications* ; Tinnitus/etiology* ; Tympanic Membrane

Patients with patulous Eustachian tubes(PET) usually suffer from annoying symptoms, such as tinnitus, autophony and aural fullness, due to the excessive opening of the Eustachian tube. There is no uniform standard of treatment, and conservative therapy combined with"Stepup"surgical intervention strategy is the main treatment. In this article, we reviewed various surgical treatments of patulous Eustachian tube in recent years, including key points of surgical operation, effectiveness, safety and complications. Full communication and evaluation are needed to establish appropriate patients' expectations preoperatively. A "Stepup" treatment strategy will be carried out, including conservative treatment, tympanic membrane surgery, Eustachian tube pharyngeal orifice constriction surgery, Eustachian tube tympanic orifice plug surgery and Eustachian tube muscle surgery, which aims to maintain normal Eustachian tube function and good middle ear ventilation.
Humans ; Eustachian Tube/surgery* ; Ear Diseases/diagnosis* ; Ear, Middle ; Tympanic Membrane/surgery* ; Tinnitus ; Otitis Media

Objective: To present a rare case of nasal tip schwannoma and describe its resection and reconstruction using combined cartilage grafts. Methods: Design: Case Report Setting: Tertiary Government Training Hospital Patient: One Results: A 13-year-old boy presented with a progressively enlarging nasal tip and severe left nasal obstruction causing breathing difficulties and psychosocial distress. There was a bulging septal mass obstructing 90% of the left nasal cavity. Septal incision biopsy revealed schwannoma and definitive surgery via open rhinoplasty approach was done. The non-encapsulated schwannoma extended from the subcutaneous nasal tip to the left septal mucosa. There was no evidence of skin or cartilage invasion, but prolonged pressure from the expansile schwannoma caused severe lower lateral cartilage and anterior septal atrophy leading to a collapsed and expanded nasal tip after resection. To correct this, a total reconstruction of the anterior tip complex was done using combined ear cartilage seagull wing graft, shield graft and septal extension graft. Conclusion Nasal tip and septal schwannoma is rare and can cause significant nasal obstruction and deformity. Complete excision is vital to avoid recurrence. Total reconstruction of the lower lateral cartilages using autologous septal and ear cartilage grafts may be a safe and effective technique that yields acceptable aesthetic results.
nasal septum ; schwannoma ; ear cartilage ; rhinoplasty ; nasal cartilages ; esthetics ; neurilemmoma ; adolescent

Objective: To observe the clinical effect of auricle reconstruction in adult patients with microtia and summarize the experience. Methods: Clinical data of adult patients with microtia who underwent total auricle reconstruction using the modified Nagata's two stage for microtia reconstruction from June 2016 to June 2021 were analyzed. A total of 41 adult patients (42 ears) with microtia were enrolled, including 30 males and 11 females, with the median age at the time of surgery of 37 years. Autogenous costal cartilage was used as the auricular framework for all patients in this group. The first stage surgery was performed according to the modified Nagata's two stage for microtia reconstruction procedure,cartilage auricular framework carving was performed by different methods according to the ossification state of adult costal cartilage. Six months following the primary operation, ear elevation and cranioauricular angle formation, retroauricular facial flap transfer and medium-thick skin grafting were performed in the second stage. Results: All patients successfully completed two stage operation. During the follow-up of 3 months and 24 months, all the 41 patients were satisfied with the morphology of reconstructed auricle. Conclusion: According to the costal cartilage status of adult patients, different costal cartilage carving techniques can be used for total auricle reconstruction to obtain ideal surgical results.
Male ; Female ; Humans ; Adult ; Surgical Flaps ; Congenital Microtia/surgery* ; Plastic Surgery Procedures ; Ear, External/surgery* ; Ear Auricle/surgery*

Objective: This study was to investigate the main characteristics and related factors of wideband absorbance (WBA) in children with normal hearing and to obtain age-specific reference range of WBA. Methods: 384 children between 0-12 years old (615 ears) who visited the Beijing Children's Hospital, Capital Medical University from October 2019 to February 2021 were enrolled, including 230 males (376 ears) and 154 females (239 ears), with totally 306 left ears and 309 right ears. Wideband tympanometry (WBT) was performed and normative WBA data were analyzed by SPSS 24.0 statistical software. Repeated measures and multivariate analysis of variance were applied to the data from 16 points at 1/3-octave frequencies (226, 324, 408, 500, 667, 841, 1 000, 1 297, 1 682, 2 000, 2 670, 3 364, 4 000, 5 339, 6 727 and 8 000 Hz) to evaluate the effects of frequency, age, external auditory canal pressures, gender and ear on WBA. Results: According to the WBT frequency-absorbance curve, the subjects were divided into seven groups: 1-month old group, 2-month old group, 3-month old group, 4-5 month old group, 6-24 month old group,>2-6 year old group and>6-12 year old group. The WBA of normal-hearing children underwent a series of developmental changes with age at both ambient pressure and tympanometric peak pressures. WBA results for 1-month group and 2-month old group exhibited a multipeaked pattern, with the peaks occurring around 2 000 and 4 897 Hz, and a notch around 3 886 Hz. WBA results for 3-month group and 4-5 month old group exhibited a single broad-peaked pattern, with the peak occurring between 2 000-4 757 Hz. The WBA of 1-month old group to 4-5 month old group decreased gradually at low frequency (226-408 Hz) and 6 727 Hz, and increased at middle to high frequency (2 670-4 000 Hz). The WBA of 6-24 month old group were significantly lower than that of 2-month old group to 4-5 month old group at all frequencies except 3 364 and 4 000 Hz. WBA results for 6-24 month old group,>2-6 year old group and>6-12 year old group exhibited a single-peaked pattern, and the peak frequency of WBA moved to the lower frequency successively. From 6-24 month old group to>6-12 year old group, the WBA gradually increased at low to middle frequencies (667-2 670 Hz) and 8 000 Hz, and decreased at middle to high frequencies (3 364-5 339 Hz). Among the 16 frequencies of all age groups, the difference between WBA under ambient pressure and tympanometric peak pressure were -0.09-0.06, and 43.75%-81.25% frequency points had statistically significant difference, which was mainly manifested in that WBA under ambient pressure were lower than that under tympanometric peak pressure at 226-1 682 Hz. There was no significant ear effect on all of the age groups. Similarly, there was no significant gender effect except for 3-month old group and 4-5 month old group. Conclusions: The WBA of normal-hearing children measured at ambient pressure and tympanometric peak pressure varied across the frequencies with age from 1 month to 12 years old, and different frequencies followed different change patterns (increase vs. decrease) in WBA. There was also significant external auditory canal pressures effect on all of the age groups. The establishment of age-specific reference range of WBA for 0-12 years old normal-hearing children in this study would be useful for clinical practice of determining normative data regarding WBT.
Male ; Female ; Humans ; Child ; Infant, Newborn ; Infant ; Child, Preschool ; Cross-Sectional Studies ; Acoustic Impedance Tests/methods* ; Ear ; Reference Values ; Ear Canal

Objective: To investigate whether the contralateral normal external auditory canal (EAC) skin graft can maintain the ear canal health after EAC reconstruction in unilateral congenital aural atresia (CAA) cases. Methods: A Zelen design randomized controlled study was used to collect unilateral CAA patients for EAC reconstruction prospectively (clinical trial registration number: ChiCTR2000032103). The patients were randomly divided into the control group and the trial group. The trial group used the contralateral normal EAC skin graft group (transplant part of the contralateral normal EAC skin to repair the atresia side for unilateral CAA patients), the control group all used scalp blade thick skin. We observed the EAC health and hearing results of the two groups after EAC reconstruction. Results: A total of 13 cases were enrolled from July 2020 to August 2021. There were eight patients in the trial group, including six males and two females, with an average age of 22.3 years (14-36 years). There were two patients with CAA on the left and six patients on the right. The average follow-up time was 8.8 months (4-14 months). There were five patients in the control group, all cases were male with an average age of 16.2 years (12-20 years). There were four patients with CAA on the left and one patient on the right. The average follow-up time was 7.0 months (2-14 months). In the trial group, eight cases of reconstructed EAC epithelium were healthy, one patient had cicatricial stenosis of EAC opening and lateralization of the tympanic membrane. The other patient had cicatricial stenosis of reconstructed EAC, this case also had scar hyperplasia of the contralateral EAC opening but recovered after soft packing and triamcinolone acetonide injection treatment. The healthy side EAC of the rest trial group had no scarring stenosis or local bone hyperplasia during long-term follow-up. In the control group, one patient was lost to follow-up and the other four patients had dry ears of reconstructed EAC, but easily to form crusts and needed to be cleaned repeatedly, one patient had lateralization of the tympanic membrane, the EAC epithelium was not healthy for long-term follow-up. The incidence of complications related to EAC reconstruction was lower than previous studies (χ²=5.55, P=0.018), and the average postoperative Air-Bone Gap increased (18.8±10.0)dB. Conclusion: By optimizing the EAC reconstruction technology, the health of the reconstructed EAC is improved compared with the previous study. After active intervention and treatment, there should be no scarring stenosis or local bone hyperplasia on the contralateral side EAC.
Adolescent ; Adult ; Ear/surgery* ; Ear Canal/surgery* ; Female ; Humans ; Male ; Retrospective Studies ; Skin Transplantation ; Tympanoplasty ; Young Adult

OBJECTIVES: Rhinoplasty is one of the most common cosmetic surgeries in China. Septal extension grafts (SEG) have been widely used in rhinoplasty, but there are few reports on SEG derived from ear cartilage. This study aims to explore the effectiveness and stability of auricular cartilage nasal SEG transplantation in Chinese rhinoplasty. METHODS: A retrospective analysis of 35 rhinoplasty patients admitted from September 2019 to March 2022 has been conducted. Among them, 29 patients underwent rhinoplasty for the first time and 6 patients underwent rhinoplasty with the age of 18-32 (average 22.4) years old. The postoperative follow-up was 3-28 (average 18.5) months. The improvement of the nose shape was observed. The changes of the nose tip angle, nasolabial angle, and nasofrontal angle were compared between before and after the operation, and the complications were recorded. RESULTS: All patients who underwent rhinoplasty with a septal extension grafts constructed from the concha cavity and concha cartilage showed significant improvement in nasal contour. The preoperative nasal tip angle, nasolabial angle, and nasofrontal angle were significantly improved compared with 3 months after operation (all P<0.001), and there was no significant difference between 3 months and 14 months after operation (all P>0.05). The appearance of nasal cavity was satisfactory in 32 patients after operation. Columella deviation occurred in 2 patients and 1 patient complained of downward rotation of the nasal tip, which was satisfied after readjustment of the graft. CONCLUSIONS The simplified SEG derived from auricular cartilage can provide stable support for the nasal tip, the nasal shape is natural after operation, and minimal trauma of unilateral auricle cartilage transplantation remains.
Humans ; Young Adult ; Adult ; Rhinoplasty ; Ear Cartilage/transplantation* ; Retrospective Studies ; Nasal Septum/transplantation* ; Plastic Surgery Procedures