[Treatment of gunshot wounds of the ear]

Of 20 males and 2 females aged 18-40 wounded in the ear region and admitted to ENT hospitals, 68% had fragmentation effects, 32% gun wounds, 83% combined injuries. Damage to the temporal bone took place in 66.5%. Foreign body (bullet or fragment) was present in half of the cases. Facial paralysis, unilateral deafness have developed in 40% and 2/3 of the victims, respectively. Advanced otiatric and neurological methods warranted removal of the foreign bodies in all the cases, filling of temporal bone defects with island neurovascular flap from the musculus nutans and musculus temporalis. Lethal outcome due to meningoencephalitis occurred in one case only.