What is Patulous Eustachian Tube?
Patulous Eustachian tube, also known as patent Eustachian tube, is the name of a rare physical disorder where the Eustachian tube, which is normally closed, instead stays intermittently open. As a result, when it is open, all of the patient’s breathing, talking, swallowing, heart beat, etc. vibrates directly on the ear drum creating an effect that sounds like the patient has a bucket on his/her head. The medical term for this phenomenon is autophony, the hearing of self-generated sounds. Diagnosis Many patients will be misdiagnosed with this disorder due to the fact that the symptoms closely resemble those of standard congestion (due to cold or allergies) or Eustachian tube dysfunction. The problem with this is that treatment for congestion or Eustachian tube dysfunction will make Patulous Eustachian Tube worse because the disorders are opposite one another. The use of tympanometry or even the use of nasally delivered masking noise when conducting a hearing assessment is highly sensiti
