Eustachian Tube Interventions in the Context of Chronic Otitis Media

Chronic obstructive Eustachian tube dysfunction results in persistent negative middle ear pressure, effusion retention, and tympanic membrane retraction. This results in chronic otitis media, which encompasses a spectrum of disease from otitis media with effusion and atelectasis to chronic suppurative otitis media and cholesteatoma. Eustachian tube (ET)-directed interventions add therapeutic value beyond traditional tympanoplasty, which emphasizes disease eradication and hearing mechanism reconstruction or tympanostomy tubes, which act by bypassing the ET. These techniques fail to address the root cause of the problem and are often complicated by recurrent disease.