We Perform Eardrum Regeneration Surgery Using Retympa
— Aiming for Regeneration, Not Just Repair —
According to statistics including university hospitals, our clinic has the highest number of eardrum regeneration surgeries using the Retympa method in the Kanto region.
■ Benefits of Eardrum Regeneration Surgery
・It is a minimally invasive procedure — only the area around the perforation of the eardrum is affected.
・Local anesthesia is not administered by injection, as is done for a tooth extraction at the dentist. Instead, a piece of cotton soaked in anesthetic solution is placed on the surface of the eardrum for 30 minutes to let it absorb, allowing the surgery to be performed with almost no pain.
・It is, of course, an outpatient (day) procedure — no hospital stay is required.
■ Eardrum Regeneration — About Retympa
Retympa is a new treatment method for regenerating the eardrum. The name comes from combining "Re" (regeneration, restoring) with "tympa" (tympanum, meaning eardrum) — a nickname given by Dr. Shinichi Kanamaru, who developed this treatment. It has been covered by Japanese health insurance since December 2019.
On this page, we share not only successful cases but every regeneration surgery performed at our clinic, without exception.
Regeneration surgeries performed (as of July 27, 2023):
85 cases
Cases currently published:
72 cases
■ Cost to Patients
All medical procedures in Japan are assigned a fee in "insurance points" set by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Compared with the conventional treatments — eardrum repair (myringoplasty) and tympanoplasty — the cost to patients for the Retympa eardrum regeneration procedure is significantly lower.
Procedure
Cost (with 30% patient co-payment)
Myringoplasty
From 18,100 points — approx. ¥54,300
Tympanoplasty
From 34,660 points — approx. ¥103,980
Eardrum regeneration surgery (Retympa)
From 1,900 points — approx. ¥5,700
That said, eardrum regeneration surgery is by no means a simple procedure. When the Ministry set the insurance points, it likely assumed the technique would be limited to closing small perforations in the eardrum.