Ear canal surgery in dogs can be performed for diagnostic or therapeutic purposes, or a combination of these. As a therapeutic procedure, surgery can be considered either for definitive treatment or as an adjunct to ongoing medical treatment.

It's important to select the appropriate type of surgery to avoid either insufficient treatment (and the possible need for revision surgery later) or overtreatment, which could expose the patient to a greater number of (or more severe) complications.

Lateral ear canal resection

The surgical goal is to have a flap that lays flat (hence the preference of some surgeons to score the ventral margin) at or slightly below the level of the horizontal canal's base. This provides direct access to, allows aeration of and permits gravity-dependent drainage from the horizontal canal.

The cartilage flap is sutured to adjacent skin to provide a drain board, while the skin is sutured over the cartilage's cut edges of the remaining vertical canal. When making the parallel incisions in the cartilage, don't allow the incisions to converge (as is the natural tendency), lest the base of the flap end up narrower and more fragile than the drain board.

The improved aeration and drainage lateral ear canal ablation provides may be curative or at least allow an easier and more successful continuation of medical treatment. However, in dogs with established hyperplasia or stenosis or in breeds in which this is common (e.g., cocker spaniels), lateral ear canal resection usually fails, so it should not be used. In some cases, the procedure can be used to visualize and excise nonmalignant masses on the medial aspect of the vertical canal that aren't accessible from the normal opening.

Total ear canal ablation

Total ear canal ablation (TECA) entails the removal of the entire external ear canal from the medial aspect of the pinna to the osseous tympanic bulla. Because diseases that may necessitate the use of TECA also commonly involve the tympanum and middle ear cavity, bulla osteotomy (BO) is almost always performed in conjunction with TECA (TECA-BO).

Indications for TECA-BO include end-stage otitis externa, especially those cases with hyperplasia and stenosis, and malignant neoplasia within the ear canal. In the latter instance, wider resection in the mastoid region may be required for complete tumor removal with effective margins (usually based on preoperative cross-sectional advanced imaging with computed tomography or magnetic resonance imaging).

Most candidates for TECA-BO are dogs with often painful, malodorous otitis that has become refractory to all other treatments—both topical and systemic. Many affected dogs also have mineralization of their ear canals that virtually precludes any other effective treatment besides ablation. Cultures of microorganisms obtained before surgery may or may not show the actual flora present deep within the canal or middle ear cavity. Hence, it's usually valuable to obtain such cultures from the tympanic bulla and external auditory meatus at the end of TECA-BO surgery, since this may provide a more accurate representation of pathogenic bacteria. Consider both aerobic and anaerobic cultures.

Note that many dogs with end-stage otitis are affected bilaterally, and it's common to perform bilateral surgery concurrently.