Middle-Ear Infection: A Commonplace among Children

Strangely enough, the most common illness in children besides the common cold is an ear infection, specifically a middle-ear infection. Seventy-five percent of children have at least one ear infection by the time they are three years old. Treatment for the infections include one of two different antibiotics prescribed by doctors, or for more serious cases, surgeries are performed that entail inserting a tube in the ear drum which alleviates pressure. Despite these treatments, twenty percent of children have repeated infections. This is particularly detrimental because repeated episodes can lead to a loss of hearing and balance. Because of these serious consequences, biomedical engineers are researching alternative treatments and studying the properties of the Eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube is a complex system of muscle, cartilage, and fat tissue, which is responsible for regulating air pressure inside the ear. Normally it supposed to open and close three or four times a day and when traveling to higher altitudes, it opens and closes more frequently. This is due to a change in air pressure and this triggers the ears to pop. A middle-ear infection causes the ears to pop more frequently. However, a more serious infection causes the Eustachian tube to not open or close at all. Researchers know that the primary cause of middle-ear infections is Eustachian tube dysfunction, however they are trying to discover the cause for this dysfunction. They believe that they can answer this question by modeling the functioning of a healthy Eustachian tube and using the model to predict the physical behavior of a diseased tube. The researchers are hopeful that this will lead to a clever development of treatment that corrects the underlying cause of middle-ear infections, as opposed to just treating the symptoms. Solid mechanics and fluid dynamics are some of the engineering principles that researchers are using to simulate how the Eustachian tube functions. Researchers believe that with the help of these engineering principles and modeling, they will be able to figure out how to prevent bacteria from forming and inflammation from occurring. This will ultimately lower the number of drugs doctors have to prescribe to patients, which means fewer children are struggling with a middle-ear infection.

http://www3.lehigh.edu/engineering/news/chadialibiomechanical.asp