Microtia Reparation Surgery

by

Mitchell Tromburg

If your child or a child dear to you has the congenital ear deformity microtia, a common birth defect causing hearing loss, then there is hope for your child to have corrective surgery or corrective options to correct hearing loss and ear deformity.

The first and mildest type of corrective microtia surgery in repairing hearing loss in a microtia victim is to repair the ear canal. The birth defect, microtia, causes ear deformity or underdevelopment within the ear. One of the most common birth defect causes of microtia is called aural atresia which means that the ear canal is not functioning properly in the microtia patient. The common birth defect amoung aural atresia type microtia patients is that there is no way for sound to be conducted properly from the external ear to the inner ear. Simple corrective surgery can either create an ear canal or repair the existing ear canal that has a birth defect or ear deformity within the ear canal. Clearing the passage from the external ear thru the ear canal surgery will improve hearing loss and may even cause a microtia patient to have no hearing loss at all after this corrective surgery.

For a microtia child to be a good candidate of this corrective surgery, the microtia patient must go through a series of tests. The first test begins with a microtia child as early as two weeks old. The microtia or hearing loss identification test is called a Brain-Stem and Auditory-Response Test, also known as the BAER test. This test will verify if the child has any auditory response and if the child with microtia has any hearing loss.

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The next kind of test that a child with microtia may go through is a CAT-Scan whose purpose is to take pictures of the inner ear development. A CAT-Scan will most likely be done if the BAER test resulted in hearing loss due to a microtia case. The doctor will want to identify the ear deformity existing within the inner ear and if the child has an ear canal, and so on.

Because microtia comes in several different grade levels of severity to hearing loss and ear deformity and ear underdevelopment, a series of tests will need to be completed for a doctor to determine which grade of microtia the child falls under and how severe hearing loss is. A simple corrective surgery for the ear canal reparation may be all a child need to repair any hearing loss and ear deformity due to microtia.

However, if a microtia child has no inner ear parts such as an eardrum, and the small ear bones which function as the inner ear, corrective surgery may not be an option. A CAT-Scan test can verify how severe the inner ear deformity is and whether surgery or hearing aids can correct the hearing loss. Sometimes the use of hearing aids is more convenient and less expensive than corrective surgery. Sometimes microtia patients benefit from hearing aids after corrective surgery to minimize hearing loss even more.

One other type of microtia corrective surgery is if a child has no cochlear ear part or ear deformity in the cochlear. Corrective surgery in this case would require a cochlear implant.

Talk with a microtia doctor who specializes in congenital ear deformity corrective surgery. Have your child with microtia go through the hearing loss tests and CAT-Scans to identify specific ear deformity and under-developments within the inner ear to identify what type of corrective surgery your child with microtia can benefit from.

The next kind of test that a child with microtia may go through is a CAT-Scan whose purpose is to take pictures of the inner ear development. A CAT-Scan will most likely…. Learn more at

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