Transtympanic Injection Procedures

A long narrow bore needle is pushed through the ear canal and past the eardrum to provide drugs into the middle ear space, where they are absorbed by the inner ear. An ear surgeon does an intratympanic injection in the office while the patient is awake.

Transtympanic injections,which are given directly into the eardrum or tympanic membrane, provide a number of advantages over intravenous pharmaceutical administration:
• They give local application for maximal impact
• They can be delivered in the doctor's office
• They have fewer systemic side effects
• They can be used on patients who cannot take systemic steroids
Not only can transtympanic injections be given to patients who cannot tolerate systemic steroids, such as those with diabetes, glaucoma, peptic ulcers, bipolar disorder, or tuberculosis, but they have also been shown to improve hearing in patients for whom systemic steroids have been ineffective or ineffective.