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Updated: Mar 25, 2026
A Comparative Study of Drug Delivery Methods Targeted to the Mouse Inner Ear: Bullostomy Versus Transtympanic Injection
Published on: March 8, 2017
Comparison between the eardrop method with tympanostomy tube and intratympanic injection in a rat model
Satoshi Hara1,2,3, John Anderson1, Takehiro Yasukawa3,4,5
1Department of Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology, Johns Hopkins Universityhttps://ror.org/00za53h95 School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD, USA.
Objective:
Medications for middle-ear diseases are commonly delivered into the middle-ear cavity either by the eardrop method with a tympanostomy tube followed by tragal pumping or by intratympanic injection. The solution delivery of the eardrop method was compared with that of intratympanic injection.
Methods:
Thirty rats were used. For the eardrop method, tympanostomy tube insertion, dye solution eardrop application and tragal pumping were performed in one ear. Intratympanic injection of the same solution was performed in the other ear. The ratio of the area stained by the dye solution to the total area of the middle-ear cavity in haematoxylin and eosin-stained temporal bone sections was evaluated.
Results:
The stained area ratio was not significantly different between the eardrop method and intratympanic injection (p = 0.897).
Conclusion:
In our rat model, the eardrop method achieved solution delivery into the middle-ear cavity as effectively as intratympanic injection.
