A surgery performed to repair a hole in the ear drum that may be present due to trauma or more commonly due to chronic ear infections. A hole in the ear drum often impairs hearing and can be complicated by ear drainage. Tympanoplasty is sometimes done entirely through incisions in the ear canal but often is combined with an incision in the skin behind the ear. This surgery is occasionally combined with ossiculoplasty (repair of one or more of the bones of hearing) and/or mastoidectomy (removal of disease from the mastoid bone behind the ear).
