Abstract:

BACKGROUND: Tympanic membrane repair materials continue to update and develop, and their efficacy and treatment course vary. How to select a proper tympanic membrane repair material is the key to tympanic membrane repair.
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the performance and application of artificial tympanic membrane repair materials to find a reasonable alternative to the tympanic membrane.
METHODS: An electronic search of Wanfang and Medline databases were done to find articles about tympanic membrane perforation using the keywords of “tympanic membrane repair, tissue engineering, biomaterials”. Repetitive articles, review and Meta analysis were excluded, and 20 articles were included.
RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: There are two methods for tympanic membrane repair: patch-bonded bypass method and surgical repair. Bonded repair materials for the tympanic membrane are various, such as egg coats, cotton sheets, plastic films, starch sponge, sheep fetal membranes. These materials can only be used as scaffold to improve perforation healing without promoting effects on cell growth. The surgical repair using temporal fascia or mastoid periosteum is more precise in the repair of tympanic membrane perforation, but big trauma and expensive cost are its disadvantages. At present, the tympanic membrane repair materials used in China include fibrin sponge, heterologous collagen membrane, tissue engineered tympanic membrane, acellular dermal matrix mucosa. Although autologous materials, allograft materials, synthetic materials are widely used in clinical tympanic membrane repair, but because of their inevitable shortcomings, tympanic membrane perforation repair materials needs further development.