Patulous Eustachian Tube

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James horton

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Messages
12
Reaction score
1
Location
Santiago
# of dives
500 - 999
Hi there, does anyone know if you are still able to dive if you have this Eustachian tube condition?
 
Had to look it up; intermittently patent/open E-tube.
Since the E-tube HAS to open to clear your ears, this sounds like it might actually be a benefit in diving.....unless the sounds of the regulator and bubbles drove you crazy.

[Patulous Eustachian tube, also known as patent Eustachian tube or PET, is the name of a physical disorder where the Eustachian tube, which is normally closed, instead stays intermittently open. When this occurs, the patient experiences autophony, the hearing of self-generated sounds. These sounds, such as one's own breathing, voice, and heartbeat, vibrate directly onto the ear drum and can create a "bucket on the head" effect.Wikipedia]
 
Any of the medical staff here know anymore about this?
 
Hi James. Not my field but until others chime in I have to agree with Fmerkel (a respiratory therapist BTW). Problems in diving and equalization occur with ETD when the tube is narrow or obstructed. You have the opposite problem.

If @doctormike or @Duke Dive Medicine doesn’t reply maybe give DAN a call.
 
Yeah, I remember looking into this in another thread. Not really much in the literature about it. I would say the same thing that I say for all poorly understood or described issues with the ET - see if you can safely equalize in a pool. The main concern I would have would be a reverse block, if the intermittent patency locked up at depth. There simply isn't a lot of data there, so you would need to listen to your body and experiment in closed water conservatively.
 
I actually have this problem in one ear and unfortunatly it keeps me from diving at the moment. On descend it usally is not a problem, however since the tube is always open I cant hear or feel the equalization on that specific ear. So I have no control over it: When Im at depth, after 10-20 minutes its starts to hurt really bad. I assume air is trapped in the middle ear somewhere. Ascending is really hard, because it feels like I get a reverse block and have to ascend really really slow for it to not hurt.
 
Ouch
 
That sounds very strange. Have you had an Ent have a look at it? If it is patulous I can't understand how you would have air trapped in the middle ear. It sounds like there is more going on than just a patulous eustachian tube.
 
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