PERFORATION OF DRUM

Perforation or hole of the ear drum (tympanic membrane) is a common problem. The cause of this problem can be injury from outside by inserting pins,match sticks etc during self cleaning of the ear or scratching the ear and blast injury due to slap on the ear, bomb blasts or blasts due to crackers.The patient feels heaviness of the ear and impairment in hearing. If the middle ear gets infected due to entry of water while bathing or swimming,the ear starts discharging.If the perforation is small,some times it heals by itself.If it does not heal,it can be treated by trichloracetic acid applications at regular intervals but if it is large,then the drum has to be repaired by surgery called myringoplasty. In myringoplasty, graft is placed after preparing the bed of the remnants of tympanic membrane. The graft material can be taken from temporalis fascia, perichondrium or a vein. The success rate of this operation has become high.If untreated,the patient lands in chronic ear infection due to repeated entry of water in the ear and the also suffers from hearing loss.