Middle ear injury through the external auditory canal: a review of 44 cases.

We performed a retrospective review of 44 patients with middle ear injury incurred through the external auditory canal. Twenty-two of the 44 patients had presented to our center within 1 month of their injury (early group), and 22 presented later (delayed group); the mean interval from the time of the trauma to presentation was 6 days in the early group and 7 years in the delayed group. The causes of injury were penetrating trauma (70% of cases), thermal insults (20%), and explosive and nonexplosive blasts (9%).