A patch of tissue from a pig鈥檚 guts could treat severe cases of glue ear, a condition that develops when the middle part of the ear fills with a sticky, gluey fluid, often as the result of infection.
It is common in children, but can also affect adults. Although glue ear can be very painful and cause temporary hearing loss, most cases heal on their own within a few months.聽Yet in around 1 per cent of cases, pus that forms inside the middle ear pushes against the eardrum until it bursts.
Surgeons currently take a slither of skin from behind a patient鈥檚 ear to repair this damage, which can be painful. In rarer cases, they can use tissue harvested from cadavers, which carries a small risk of infection.
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Chin-Kuo Chen at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in Taoyuan, Taiwan, and his colleagues treated 72 adult patients with chronic glue ear using pig tissue.
The patches measure 2-by-1.5 centimetres and are made from the animals鈥� small intestine mucosa 鈥� a thin layer of tissue deep inside the gut. 鈥淭he advantages are that there is a limitless supply of pig tissue and it seems to give better cosmetic results,鈥� says Chen.
All but four of the implants were successful and fully healed within three months, the team says. Even in the four that failed to heal completely, the size of the eardrum perforation was significantly reduced. 鈥淚t could possibly be in routine use one day,鈥� says Chen.
Pig tissue is already used in other areas of medicine, such as replacement valves for damaged human hearts, but can be unacceptable to some people on religious grounds.
The use of pig tissue in drugs or implants was unacceptable to leaders of Hindu, Sikh and Muslim faiths who responded to a 聽by researchers at the University of Copenhagen, unless in emergencies and only then if alternatives weren鈥檛 available. The Christian, Jewish and Buddhist leaders contacted said they accepted their use.
鈥淎s it鈥檚 pig tissue, some people probably won鈥檛 go near it,鈥� says Tony Narula, an ear, nose and throat surgeon at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London. He says most people tolerate having their own skin taken with little discomfort.
Clinical Otolaryngology
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