tympanic membrane is located at the base of the external auditory canal and is the boundary between external auditory and the middle ear. The eardrum is very weak and can easily be damaged due to some slight stimulation! So let’s talk about the causes and hazards of tympanic membrane perforation today.
01 How is the perforation of the eardrum?
1. Direct cause
Because the eardrum is very thin, accidentally damage the eardrum and foreign objects when picking out eardrum, which can lead to perforation of the eardrum. It is also common in the tympanic membrane that is damaged by head injuries. Strong water column or airflow sprays the eardrum, mistakenly dropping chemical corrosion agent into the ear, splashing metal chips into the ear canal, and blowing the Eustachian tube can also damage the eardrum.
2. Common causes
infection caused by the direction of the Eustachian tube, and it is more common in infants and young children. Because the baby's Eustachian tube is short and relatively thick, the tube is also straight, nasal secretions, milk, etc. can easily flow into the Eustachian tube or choke into the middle ear, and acute otitis media occurs. After the middle ear becomes suppurative, the pus corrodes the eardrum, causing perforation of the eardrum.
3. The indirect reason
is mainly due to the sudden and sharp changes in the external atmospheric pressure. Slapping can also damage the eardrum and perforate. When riding a plane, due to the Eustachian tube being blocked, the pressure of the external auditory canal changes dramatically when the plane lands, the membrane can also cause perforation. If the air pressure in the middle ear cavity suddenly rises sharply, the internal and external air pressure of the eardrum will also occur. If you blow your nose hard, the air pressure in the middle ear will suddenly hit the eardrum from the inside to the outside, which can cause the eardrum to perforate.
4. Being affected by ear diseases, benign otitis media cannot be cured for a long time
suppurative acute mastoiditis and other inflammatory ear diseases, and secondary infection.
02 What are the symptoms of perforation of the tympanic membrane?
1. When the first starts, only the tympanic membrane is congested. As is inwardly tympanic membrane, point-like bleeding occurs, causing sensorineural deafness.
2. Explosive tympanic membrane perforation, squamous epithelial cysts are formed due to inversion of the squamous epithelium into the tympanium, which is prone to secondary infection.
3. Hearing from normal to moderate deafness, he feels blocked, and even ear pain . After a few hours, the symptoms of ear pain are relieved due to the exudate, and are often accompanied by tinnitus .
4, a sense of blockage occurs. After the eardrum is perforated, the air pressure in the patient's ears inside and outside the eardrum will change. The air pressure caused by the external auditory canal will impact the damaged part of the eardrum, making the patient feel dull in his ears and slightly dull and painful in his brain. If the problem is serious, the patient will also have symptoms of ear pain and tinnitus.
5. Dizzy, nausea, and pus or a small amount of blood will flow out of the ear canal from time to time. The bleeding in the early stage of perforation of the tympanic membrane is not obvious. Only through the ear endoscope can you find a small amount of blood on the edge of the perforation. Sometimes blood stains or blood scabs can be seen in the external auditory canal. However, when the tympanic membrane enters due to sewage and bacteria after perforation, it will cause infection in middle ear , and some poison-like symptoms will occur.
6. Hearing loss. Patients often show that they need to listen to other people's conversations, watch TV, and listen to the MP3 sounds loudly, but they don't feel anything. When listening to others' words by yourself, you often need others to repeat them twice to hear them clearly, etc. This is caused by the reduction of the effective vibration area of the sound source.
03 Patients with different causes, different symptoms
●Otitis media tympanic membrane perforation: The patient first suffers ear pain, and the pain relieves after perforation, and pus or clear liquid may flow out of the ear.
●Traumatic tympanic membrane perforation: At the moment of perforation, the patient often suddenly feels a sharp pain in the ear, and his hearing loss immediately accompanied by tinnitus, but he may not feel anything after the perforation. If there is a small amount of bleeding in the external auditory canal, the ears may feel stuffy.
accompanied by symptoms: In addition to causing rupture of the eardrum, some pressure injuries may also cause damage to the inner ear due to stapes vigorous exercise, which may be accompanied by symptoms of vertigo, vomiting and mixed deafness!
04 What are the dangers of perforation of the eardrum?
hearing loss
For patients with relatively small perforations, they generally do not have very obvious symptoms, but when blowing their noses, there will be occasional sounds of air leakage in the ear canal.
But if the perforation is more obvious, the patient will suddenly experience ear pain, and his hearing will be affected, and his hearing will slowly decline.
If the perforation of the tympanic membrane is severe, when severe ear pain occurs, the perforated ear will immediately experience hearing loss.
And this hearing loss will become more and more serious as the condition develops.
Repeated tinnitus
tympanic membrane can separate the middle ear and the outer ear from each other, and belongs to a sound transmission structure. If the eardrum is perforated, it will cause the ear to transmit sound.
not only causes hearing loss, but also causes tinnitus of different degrees, such as the sound of wind blowing in the ears, while some patients may experience muffled and repeated vertigo. If the condition is serious, it may even lead to nerve paralysis.
The facial expression muscles of the patient will be paralyzed, the wrinkles on the forehead disappear, and the corners of the mouth will sag, and repeated involuntary drooling will occur, unable to complete a series of movements such as bulging the mouth, closing the eyes, and raising the eyebrows.
Middle ear infection
Tympanum can isolate bacteria from the outside and prevent bacteria from entering the middle ear. Once the eardrum perforation occurs, some bacteria will invade the inside of the ear canal, which can easily cause infection.
Especially for patients who have not been treated for long-term tympanic membrane perforation or do not heal quickly after treatment, bacteria will invade the middle ear, thereby causing inflammation of the middle ear.
Over time, permanent hearing loss is easily prone to occur.
Middle ear cyst
Middle ear cyst refers to cholesteatoma. It is because after the tympanic membrane perforation, some skin decompositions in the ear canal, or some shed and necrotic epithelial tissue cannot be discharged normally, and will accumulate into some clumps of substances, causing middle ear cysts.
Once you suffer from a middle ear cyst, the patient will experience a series of symptoms such as long-term pus flowing in the ear, ear stuffy , tinnitus, ear pain, and rapid hearing loss in daily life.
And due to cysts appearing in the middle ear, many bacteria will invade the inside of the middle ear. It will cause damage to the protein , which can easily lead to facial paralysis, which will cause great health hazards to patients.
In short, if the tympanic membrane perforation occurs, it will cause great harm to the body. Therefore, when symptoms of tympanic membrane perforation occur, you must be admitted to the hospital quickly and receive scientific and standardized treatment.
05 Warm reminder
Human ears are very fragile structures. The inner and middle ears contain fine structures that are extremely sensitive to external harm and disease stimulation. Therefore, timely and effective treatment is crucial to protect hearing.
When the patient experiences symptoms such as ear pain or discomfort, sudden hearing loss, he/she should go to the hospital immediately.
(Note: Some of the above pictures are from the Internet, please delete if infringement)
