Bioactive glass in canal wall reconstruction tympanoplasty

Abstract

The purpose of this Technical Note is to describe the surgical technique to transform canal wall down tympanoplasty into canal wall up tympanoplasty, that is, to rehabilitate a recess cavity by filling the mastoid and epitympanic cavities with synthetic tissue (bioactive glass) and recreating a normal-caliber external auditory canal. Mastoid cavity obliteration leads to a clinically significant improvement in health-related quality of life without increasing risk of recurrent or residual cholesteatoma, conditional upon technically impeccable surgery.

Keywords: Bioactive glass; Canal wall down tympanoplasty; Cholesteatoma; Mastoid obliteration; Reconstruction.