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Any recommendations for patients that required myringotomy tubes as a result of Middle Ear barotrauma or eustachian tube dysfunction when finished with HBOT? We are trying to keep our ENTs up to date on best practices for these patients considering other comorbidities. I could have sworn I read a UHM article within the past decade about complications associated with MT tubes in geriatric patients treated with HBOT and the recommendation to have them removed, but Im unable to locate it. (Maybe someone recalls the same and can share that article) Should our HBOT providers recommend that tubes be removed? Or should we just default to the ENTs decision on whether or not to remove the tubes? Thanks, Sean
Sep 26, 2024 by Sean Finley, EMT-B, CHT
2 replies
Eugene Worth
MD, M.Ed., FABA, ABPM/UHM

Sean:

Great question, but you are off in timeframe. The paper you remembered was 1998 ... Helen Gelly.

Unfortunately, there are complications with insertion of PETubes for ear barotrauma, so we don't recommend it if there are ways to mitigate ear pain without tubes.

In my practice, once the tubes were in place, and HBOT finished, we would have the patient follow up with the ENT surgeon. They usually would let the tubes fall out spontaneously. If there were a persistent perforation, there is the cigarette paper patches that work well.

I'm not aware of a newer paper that definitively answers the question.

gene worth

Sep 26, 2024
Sean Finley
EMT-B, CHT
Thank you Dr. Worth
Sep 27, 2024
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