In an Australian first, surgeons at Fremantle Hospital and The University of Western Australia believe a new method of repairing perforated ear drums could be a major advance in ear health.

 

Professor Gunesh Rajan, Head of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery in UWA's School of Surgery, and a consultant at Fremantle Hospital, said tympanic membrane perforation, or hole in the ear drum, affected around 100,000 Australians and more than 80 million people worldwide.

 

Professor Rajan heads a research team of Australian ear, nose and throat specialists and said the new regenerative method had been pioneered by Professor Shin-Ichi Kanemaru in Osaka, Japan.

 

"The current conventional treatment is a time-consuming, complicated operation that requires a general anaesthetic and this is frequently beyond the reach of developing countries as well as Australia's indigenous children in remote communities," he said.

 

"Professor Kanemaru's ingenious method involves a five-minute procedure that stimulates the body to close the perforation itself, using naturally occurring bio-engineered growth factor substances which are applied to the rim of the perforation.

 

"The remarkable healing qualities of the human body grow back the tissue and close the hole completely, restoring the ability to hear."

 

The new technique reduces the operation time from 35 minutes to five minutes and, for adults, can be done in an outpatient clinic.  Professor Rajan said a trial involving adults and children was now under way at Fremantle Hospital to replicate the Japanese trial while another trial was also due to start soon at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children.