Minimally invasive ear surgery

With the development of medicine, minimally invasive surgery has become a method favored by everyone. The biggest feature of minimally invasive surgery is that it has small wounds and less bleeding, which is very effective for the patient's recovery. Minimally invasive ear surgery includes many forms, including external ear surgery as well as middle ear and inner ear surgery. Using minimally invasive techniques can reduce risks for patients. Of course, choosing minimally invasive surgery is not 100% risk-free, so you still have to choose a professional and experienced doctor.

Otology surgery includes operations on the outer, middle, and inner ear. These surgeries can be performed minimally invasively using otoscopes and microscopes. At this point, everyone may think of a question: What are the advantages and disadvantages of ear endoscopy and microscopy?

It can be said that modern ear surgery started with the application of microscope technology. Its advantages have undoubtedly made ear surgery more sophisticated, the protection of important structures more in place, the complications and mortality rates have dropped rapidly, and the surgical results have been significantly improved. However, since microscopic surgery requires direct light to the surgical area to expose the surgical field, most of the time, additional auxiliary incisions and excessive removal of normal structures around the lesion are required. This increases systemic problems such as surgical trauma, postoperative pain and postoperative complications, and especially brings severe challenges and great difficulties to the simultaneous or secondary reconstruction of hearing function.

With the development of science and technology, ear endoscopy technology has become a new highlight in the development of modern ear surgery in recent years. Due to the mobility of the light source and the multi-angle nature of the light in otologic endoscopic surgery, the light can reach the lesion site through some natural cavities. Especially when operating in deep cavities, it does not require a large incision or removal of normal structures as in microscopic surgery. However, due to the imperfection of supporting instruments for ear endoscopy technology, microscope surgery is still the mainstream technology for ear surgery.

At present, the effective combination of otoscope technology and microscope technology has become the current treatment direction of ear surgery internationally. How to use ear endoscopy and microscopy technology rationally and scientifically? In other words, how to better achieve minimally invasive surgery and function preservation or reconstruction in ear surgery? This is a hot research topic in the medical community today, and there is no unified and clear standard.

Here, I would like to discuss the main application scope and methods of ear endoscope technology and microscope technology in my ear surgery for your reference and communication.

1: Otoendoscopic technology has become the preferred technology in my ear surgery because it is more minimally invasive. At present, the main application areas are:

1. Surgery for lesions in the external auditory canal: such as removal of cholesteatoma lesions in the external auditory canal, removal of foreign bodies in the external auditory canal, and incision of furunculosis in the external auditory canal, etc. This type of surgery can be completed through the external auditory canal under the ear endoscope system. There is no need to make an incision inside the ear or behind the ear. There is no skin incision scar after the operation, and the surgical effect is very good.

2. Middle ear surgery: Otitis media is the main disease that requires ear surgery. The minimally invasive ear endoscopic treatment projects I have carried out mainly include:

1) Endoscopic tympanoplasty + tympanoplasty. These surgeries include endoscopic tympanic membrane repair surgery for simple chronic suppurative otitis media and traumatic tympanic membrane perforation repair surgery.

2) Endoscopic exploration of the tympanic cavity and ossicular chain + hearing reconstruction surgery. This includes surgeries for hearing loss caused by inflammation or trauma, as well as other unknown causes that require tympanic cavity exploration and ossicular chain exploration, as well as hearing reconstruction surgery using autologous bones or artificial ossicles.

3) Minimally invasive otologic endoscopic surgery for chronic suppurative otitis media with bone ulcer. This surgery utilizes otendoscopic technology to explore the tympanic cavity and ossicular chain and remove granulation lesions, achieving excellent minimally invasive results. There is no need to open the mastoid process, hearing is well preserved after surgery, and the operated ear recovers to a near physiological state, avoiding the pain of a huge external auditory canal cavity formed by conventional opening of the mastoid process during microscopic surgery.

In addition to the above surgeries, I selectively combine microscopic technology with ear endoscopy technology as the first choice. These surgeries mainly include cholesteatoma otitis media, otosclerosis, mastoid cavity lesions and inner ear disease surgery.

In short, minimally invasive otolaryngology surgery is the requirement and trend of the development of the times. Both patients and doctors need to follow the trend of the times, apply the best technology, and pay the lowest cost to achieve complete recovery from the disease.