Essay On Myringotomy

When I was a child, I had a myringotomy. I distinctly remember having to be sedated and needing to wear ear plugs whenever I went swimming. I had never thought much about the surgery until I attended college and one of my professor stated that the surgery has some controversy surrounding it. I became increasingly intrigued and desired to know more than solely the function of the eustachian tubes. The most common treatment for acute-middle ear infections are myringotomy and antibiotics. However, the efficacies of these treatments are not well known. When compared to myringotomy and no myringotomy with antibiotics, there were no significant differences. Some claim that puncturing the tympanic membrane gives better results but this is judging the appearance of the tympanic membrane weeks after the treatments. This study was a double blind-study where 171 children were treated by four different methods. The methods include no antibiotics or myringotomy, myringotomy only, antibiotics only, and both myringotomy and antibiotics.

The results of the study found that the frequency of acute otitis media peaks around age of 4 no matter the sex of the patient. The amount of secretion from the ear was significantly lower in the patients who had not undergone a myringotomy compared to those who had. In regard to otoscopic findings, there were no significant differences between the four groups for tympanic appearance. After 1 month, all perforations from the myringotomy had closed. Differences or lack there
The differences across treatments were minimum and almost non-existent. Antibiotics and myringotomy should be reserved for irregular cases. There is no evidence that myringotomy or antibiotics yield better results. These conclusions makes me wonder if I was an irregular case or actually needed a