Patulous Eustachian Tube

[fmerkel]

Indeed, if it IS open all the time you should not have any trouble clearing....either up or down.
I can see the 'imbalance' between ears could create issues, maybe over stressing the open ear when clearing the normal one. Or not being able to tell when to clear.

 

[mi000ke]

I was just diagnosed with patulous ET a few days ago. I have always had problems equalizing and a couple of years ago starting taking psuedoephedrine before every dive which has helped. I have always been careful to descend only as my ears cleared and had experienced barotrama only once (a few years ago before taking the pseudo). But last week I experienced the worst ear pain/headache I have ever experienced. Everything was normal on the dive - typically stubborn ears - but no pain during or immediately after the dive. However in the middle of the night I woke to the worst head/ear/neck pain I can ever remember having. It was definitely centered on my right eustation tube. After a couple of days of pain coming and going i saw an ENT, who scoped my ET and ears and cleared me to dive. But he said that I had Patulous ET in the right ear, and being open would make it more difficult to create the back pressure needed to equalize. And I do find it easier to clear my left ear. He also prescribed gum chewing (which I also hate) to keep loosening the ET., and doing a saline nasal rinse every day. I'm also doing a 6 week course of nasal steroids to calm down the ET which remains mildly irritated. I have done four dives since the barotrauma and doing the steroids and no problems.