Child Chronic Ear Infection Surgery
Doctor Drew Ordon: Pediatric ear, nose and throat surgeon, Doctor Debra Don was ready to perform a simple procedure that can reverse Jack’s painful condition.
Doctor Debra Don: We first removed wax from the ear canal and we do this primarily so that we can have good exposure to the ear drum. Here is the ear drum. It’s very nice and shiny, translucent structure. It looks somewhat like wax paper.
And this is a little knife that fits into the ear canal and will allow me to make a little cut in the ear drum. So, here we go. I’m making a little cut in the ear drum. Now, we will insert the tube through the ear drum. The tube is very tiny. You can’t easily see it with a naked eye and it’s shaped somewhat of a dumbbell shape with a whole in the middle of it.
Now that the tube is partially placed in the incision, I basically push the tube through the incision, so we will go now to the other side. I have to remove a little bit more wax. Now, I’m going to insert the tube. So, these tubes are temporary and they will fall out on their own from the ear drum after approximately one year. Now, I’m just placing some ear drops in the ear canal and we are done.
Doctor Jim Sears: We’re joined by pediatric ENT Doctor Debra Don from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, mom Kerrie and little Jack. Welcome you guys!
Kerrie: Thank you.
Doctor Jim Sears: So mom, you were pretty worried about his surgery and he was getting a lot of ear infections. How’s he been doing since?
Kerrie: A lot of ear infections, he’s done absolutely amazing and he not only had the ear tubes done that day, he had adenoids and tonsils out.
Doctor Jim Sears: So Doctor Don, why don’t you explain to us why Jack needed the surgery.
Doctor Debra Don: Okay, well basically, let’s imagine that this upper container is the middle ear space. The lower container is the nose and everyone has a tube that basically connects the middle ear to the nose and in a healthy Eustachian tube you would basically have an open system where the tube works allows air to go into the middle ear space and allows drainage of mucous and secretions like this.
Now, when you have a cold, basically what happens is the Eustachian tube gets clogged. It gets swollen and then you have a back-up of secretions and mucous and pus in the middle ear space and that basically causes an irate for children and an ear infection. Now, in surgery what we do is we actually placed a little tube in the ear drum and that allows draining the mucous and helping to keep the middle ear clear.
Doctor Drew Ordon: Actually, one of the most common surgeries the kids get and it’s so common and you did such a great explaining. I’m going to explain it again with the help of our little animation here. So, as you said, we’re going to run this animation and we’re going to go through this and I’m going to show you how exactly like you said we have this build up of all this fluid inside the middle ear, the little bones, the ear drum can’t move, therefore, Jack can’t hear.
So, just like you said that you’re going to insert that tube low in the ear drum. Now, we’re going to show you what happens with the tube in place draining all that all that fluid out. It takes in place of that Eustachian tube that’s not working.
Doctor Jim Sears: That’s great.
Doctor Debra Don: And these are actually the actual tubes, Drew and you can see how small they are. They’re actually about the size of a grain of rice.
Doctor Jim Sears: Yeah, they’re tiny and they often fall out on their own and parents don’t even see them fall out.
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