[Clinical manifestation and treatment of temporal bone tympanic plate fracture]

Objective: To elucidate the clinical manifestations of temporal bone tympanic plate fracture and the correlation between treatment time after injury and its prognosis, and to discuss the importance of early treatment of tympanic fracture. Methods: Retrospective analysis was carried out on the clinical data of 15 patients(17 ears)with temporal bone tympanic plate fracture from March 2006 to July 2019. The course of disease was less than 1 month (initial stage) in 7 cases (7 ears), 1 month to 6 months (middle stage) in 2 cases (3 ears), and 6 months or more (late stage) in 6 cases (7 ears). The symptoms, signs, CT findings, pure tone audiometry results, surgical methods and clinical efficacy of each group were summarized. Results: Most patients with temporal bone tympanic plate fracture were referred to otology department by maxillofacial surgery. Fracture occured indirectly with the chin or zygomatic region as the direct stress point. Thirteen of the 15 patients had mental region wounds or scars, and 14 patients had external acoustic canal bleeding immediately after injury. In the initial-stage group, hearing was mostly unchanged, while in the middle and late-stage groups, hearing loss was mainly caused by conduction factors. In the initial stage group, 6 cases/7 cases were cured by external acoustic canal packing; External acoustic canal stenosis or atresia occurred in 2 cases in the middle-stage group and were cured by external acoustic canal plasty. All the 6 patients in the late-stage group had external acoustic canal stenosis or atresia, among whom 5 patients with external acoustic canal cholesteatoma were cured by external acoustic canal plasty, and the other one patient with middle ear cholesteatoma was cured by modified radical mastoidectomy and tympanoplasty after external acoustic canal plasty for three times. Conclusions: Temporal bone tympanic plate fracture is a special type of temporal bone fracture. In the early stage of temporal bone tympanic fracture, bleeding of the external acoustic canal is the main symptom, and hearing is normal mostly. Advanced conductive deafness may result from external acoustic canal stenosis and/or cholesteatoma formation later. Bleeding of the external acoustic canal and irregular bulge of the anterior wall of the external acoustic canal with mental region wound are important signs for early diagnosis of temporal bone fracture. Temporal bone tympanic fracture should be paid attention to, early detection and timely treatment can avoid external acoustic canal stenosis and atresia.