Autologous cartilage injection for the patulous eustachian tube.

The eustachian tube (ET) is normally closed, but it opens temporarily during swallowing. Patients with a patulous ET (PET) have various aural symptoms such as aural fullness, autophony, and hearing their own breathing. These symptoms are caused by abnormal transmission of sound from the pharynx to the middle ear via an open ET with little attenuation. We introduce a novel injection technique for the treatment of PET using autologous cartilage. This procedure is minimally invasive and has been successfully used to treat PET in 2 patients.