patulous eustachian tubes

[Ben Tetzner]

Howdy guys,
After a recent illness I developed patulous eustachian tubes. Is it relatively safe or stupid to still wish to dive?
Mine are stuck open alot of the time.

 

[BlueTrin]

Howdy guys,
After a recent illness I developed patulous eustachian tubes. Is it relatively safe or stupid to still wish to dive?
Mine are stuck open alot of the time.

I think you should ask advice to DAN or a doctor specialised in hyperbaric medicine and with diving experience

 

[Angelo Farina]

I keep my tubes open voluntarily for a lot of time, since when, as a child, I discovered how to control the muscles which make them to open. It is called BTV.
It is not a pathological condition in my case. And it makes very easy to dive, I do not need to close my nostrils for using equalization techniques such as Valsalva, Frenzel, Toynbee or Marcante-Odaglia...
So I do not see how having the tubes which open easily, or even stay open, can be a problem.
Ask to your doctor, but I am quite sure that it is a condition very favourable for diving...

 

[wnissen]

I think you should ask advice to DAN or a doctor specialised in hyperbaric medicine and with diving experience

Second this. DAN will help you find the right person to answer this question.

 

[mi000ke]

I had this condition come on recently - discovered during an exam with an ENT physician (who is also a diver), for what I thought was barotrauma. He cleared me to dive, and so far no problems after 20 dives. I find I still need to equalize often. He did recommend flushing my nasal cavities daily using a neti pot.

 

[-JD-]

@Ben Tetzner if you click to "Report" your post and ask, the Moderators will move it to the Diving Medicine sub-forum (Diving Medicine) It is a more appropriate venue and you will likely get some good general information from knowledgeable professionals.

 

[Searcaigh]

Thread moved to Diving Medicine

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Howdy guys,
After a recent illness I developed patulous eustachian tubes. Is it relatively safe or stupid to still wish to dive?
Mine are stuck open alot of the time.

Hi @Ben Tetzner ,

Patulous eustachian tubes in and of themselves shouldn't present any risk with diving as long as you're consistently able to equalize your ears. You could be at higher theoretical risk of middle ear infection from water ingress but I don't know what the actual risk would be. The sounds created during diving could also become bothersome. May I ask what illness it was that brought this condition on? Also tagging @doctormike here, he is our resident ENT and may have more detailed information.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[doctormike]

So I do not see how having the tubes which open easily, or even stay open, can be a problem.

It can actually be pretty unpleasant, mainly due to hearing problem, autophony, etc....

The question would be what caused the PET? Sometimes there are neurological issues.

 

[Angelo Farina]

It can actually be pretty unpleasant, mainly due to hearing problem, autophony, etc....

The question would be what caused the PET? Sometimes there are neurological issues.

In my own case, I can open my tubes and keep them open as long as I want, but I can also close them and keep them closed, for as long as I want.
I got the habit, since I was a child, to keep them open for long times, because I actually like the auditory effect of earing my own voice through the tubes.
In hygienic terms, I did find that keeping the tubes open, so actually "venting" the inner ear, is quite healthy. This solved completely the problem of systematic middle ear infections of which I did suffer when I was a baby. On the other side, I take care of closing my tubes when water enters the nasal cavity, for avoiding that it can enter in the middle ear.
Coming back to the OP. It is unclear if he has got control of the muscles for opening and closing the tubes. Now he has tubes which can stay open easily, but he needs to get full voluntary control of this. It takes time and concentration. I remember that it did take months when, as a child, I understood the existence of the tubes and I wanted to get control of them.
6 months, probably. But no one was guiding me doing the proper exercises for learning BTV.
I suppose that, under the guidance of a good free diving instructor, who practices BTV himself, a proper training of a couple of months could give the OP full control of opening or closing his tubes, as I have got.