Cautery of the Tympanic Membrane

Abstract

To present the fascinating, controversial, and tumultuous history of tympanic cautery as a form of myringoplasty and describe the relevance of work more than 150 years old to modern practice and research. More than 70 English, French, and German articles and books published over the last 400 years, which refer to some aspect of tympanic membrane cautery. The first recorded use of silver nitrate to stimulate closure of tympanic membrane perforations is by William Wilde in 1848. Since then, numerous modifications of this technique have been used, and its significance has waxed and waned in response to events within the speciality of otology and the wider world. There are lessons to be learned from the rise and fall of this once widely practiced technique. There exists a school of thought that believes that the significance of cautery lies not only in the history of otology but also in its future.