Biomechanical study of myringotomy through simple incision and drainage tube insertion

This work presents a comparison study from the biomechanical point of view regarding myringotomy through incision and with tube insertion. Myringotomy is a procedure of draining the fluid from an ear affected by otitis media with effusion, a sickness very often found in children. For the study an already validated finite element model of the ear was used. Results show that stresses are higher in the case of tube insertion use. Such stresses of the eardrum can determine the occurrence of different histological changes that can lead to pathologies of the ear like local atrophy, myringosclerosis or even severe pathologies like cholesteatoma.