Otitis media is a common condition in otolaryngology, and middle ear surgery is a routine procedure in otology. Patients may encounter some problems after surgery and need to communicate with their doctors to understand them in time. I. After the surgery: 1. Middle ear surgery usually requires filling the middle ear cavity and external ear canal with gelatin sponge and iodoform gauze for the purpose of fixing the repair of the fascia or cartilage pieces of the tympanic membrane, the auditory tuberosity, and the flap of the external ear canal. The duration of gauze filling in the external ear canal is about 2 weeks, during which there will be stuffiness in this side of the ear, or hearing the sound of one’s own breathing and heartbeat, sometimes it is a low-pitched tinnitus like running water or whirring, which is normal and need not be worried. 2. There will be intermittent ear pain after the anesthesia subsides after surgery, which is usually obvious at night and will gradually reduce to disappear after 2-3 days. If the pain affects your sleep, you can take oral painkillers for symptomatic treatment. However, for cases where the pain lasts for a long time and the degree of progressive aggravation, it is important to tell the doctor so that timely examination and treatment can be carried out. 3.There may be a short period of vertigo after the surgery, so pay attention to bed rest. 4.After the ear surgery, the diet should be light, protein-rich semi-liquid food or soft food. Do not eat hard and crunchy food that requires hard chewing. 5.After surgery, there will be a small amount of exudate, light red or light yellow, from the outer ear canal gauze. Usually, the doctor will place sterilized dry cotton balls at the mouth of the outer ear canal to absorb these secretions. If the amount of secretion increases and becomes pus-like, you should tell your doctor in time and sometimes you will need to use antibiotic ear drops to treat it. The next few weeks are for the new tympanic membrane and the auditory bone to further heal and connect and for the epithelium of the middle ear cavity to grow back. During the post-operative recovery process, your surgeon will schedule follow-up appointments according to your condition. A total of three follow-up appointments at 2-3 week intervals and at least one review per year are usually necessary. 1. Some patients may experience a slight stuffiness, pressure or pulling sensation in the ear. Eustachian tube blowing exercises can relieve this discomfort after the eardrum has healed firmly enough. This is a normal phenomenon during the gradual healing process of the external auditory canal and middle ear cavity. However, if the discharge has a pus-like appearance and the amount of secretion increases instead of decreasing, a follow-up examination is required. 3. After otitis media surgery for hearing reconstruction (including tympanic membrane repair and tympanoplasty for reconstruction of the auditory bone), patients can usually feel an improvement in hearing after the gauze is removed, but it takes up to 2 months after surgery to reach a stable hearing status. Therefore, it is not recommended to perform pure tone hearing threshold measurement and other recheck hearing before 2 months. 4. Eustachian tube function is an important factor affecting the outcome of otitis media surgery, but there is no effective means to evaluate the patient’s preoperative eustachian tube function or to predict the recovery of eustachian tube function after surgery. About 1 month after surgery, depending on how well the eardrum is healing, patients can begin to do blowing exercises to help the eustachian tube recover. The easiest way is to “pinch and puff”, but be careful not to do it when you have a “cold” or a stuffy nose or runny nose to prevent nasal bacteria from entering the middle ear and causing reinfection. 1. Keep a happy mood, pay attention to rest, avoid noisy environments, eat a low-salt, low-fat diet, and avoid smoking and drinking alcohol; 2. Avoid violent, rapid head shaking or vibration, especially for patients who have had their auditory bones reconstructed, so as not to cause displacement of the auditory bones; 3. 4. Treat the “cold” promptly to avoid viruses or bacteria from infecting the middle ear via the eustachian tube, and be careful not to cover your mouth or sneeze to prevent excessive air pressure from entering the tympanic chamber and damaging the eardrum; 5. Do not fly or enter an environment with rapid changes in air pressure for 3 months after middle ear surgery to avoid affecting the recovery of the eardrum.