I. Appointment for surgery Patients with otitis media can make an outpatient appointment by phone or online. Patients will be seen at the clinic at the scheduled time. A brief examination (ear CT, electro auscultation, etc.) is usually performed to assess the patient’s suitability for surgery and to inform them of the main risks of surgery (facial paralysis and deafness, etc.). Patients who are suitable for surgery choose for themselves whether or not to undergo surgery. If the patient chooses to undergo surgery, he/she will need to obtain an inpatient order from the outpatient clinic and make an appointment for hospitalization and surgery at the inpatient unit (female patients should avoid menstruation). Pre-operative examination should be completed in the outpatient clinic before surgery. 2. Inpatient surgery The general hospitalization time is 2 days. Patients are admitted to the hospital on the same day to do some necessary preparations, and then operated on the next day, if there is no special, they can be discharged the next day after the operation. The operation takes about 30-60 minutes and requires general anesthesia. Regarding hearing reconstruction, it is necessary to decide intraoperatively whether to use own hearing bone or artificial hearing bone implant according to the lesion. Post-operative care After discharge, patients can choose to change medication in our hospital or back to the local hospital according to their condition. About one week after surgery, the first post-operative follow-up consultation will be held. The content of the follow-up consultation: removal of stitches and extraction of ear canal gauze. After returning home, you can go to the nearest pharmacy to buy alcohol cotton balls, squeeze them dry and put them in the ear canal (do not stuff them inside), and change them once or twice a day for about 3-4 weeks; the outpatient clinic will prepare a few bottles of ear drops for the patient, and they will be applied three times a day, 2-3 drops at a time, for a total of about 10 days. After one month, the second post-operative follow-up visit is held. The content of the follow-up examination: cleaning the operated cavity, observing the growth of the tympanic membrane and the recovery of hearing. IV. Post-operative patients’ common problems Post-operative ear canal ooze: After surgery, due to the recovery of the surgical cavity, there will be bloody secretion oozing out of the ear canal at first, which will slowly turn into yellowish liquid afterwards, which is a normal phenomenon. The exudate will slowly decrease and mostly return to normal within 2-3 months after surgery. Numbness of the ear: For those who have a retroauricular incision, the curved incision behind the ear will inevitably cut off some branches of the sensory nerve and thus affect the sense of touch in the ear (auricle). This will cause some patients to lose sensation in their ears, which is normal and not a cause for concern. This is normal and should not be a cause for concern. The patient will usually recover slowly 3-6 months after surgery. Flowing water and heartbeat sounds: As there is still some filling in the cavity of the operated ear and normal exudate, there may be a sound like flowing water or a rumbling sound like a heartbeat in the ear, which is normal. These sounds may slowly decrease or disappear as the exudate from the cavity decreases and the cavity becomes epithelialized. Altered taste: In some patients, a small nerve that innervates the sense of taste has to be sacrificed during surgery in order to completely remove the diseased tissue. This may cause a decreased sensation of taste or an off-flavor in the front of the tongue on the patient’s side of surgery after surgery. Diet: Avoid eating foods that are too hard in the days just after surgery, and then slowly transition to a normal diet with no special avoidance requirements. Other precautions: do not blow your nose or hold your breath as hard as possible after surgery; after the tympanic membrane has healed (it takes about one month), you can do sports with less activity (such as running, etc.), and you need to pay attention to avoid head banging; the time of flying after surgery needs to be decided according to the patient’s condition and the experience of the attending surgeon, and can be as early as a few days after surgery.