Erica, mom of a son with unilateral microtia atresia

Listen as Erica shares about having a son with unilateral microtia atresia.

He is now a thriving 8 year old.

Find the transcript of the interview here:

Episode 18: Hearing Mama

Information about microtia atresia

The term "microtia" is intuitive. In Latin, micro means “small”, and otia means “ear.” Microtia is a birth deformity of the ear that occurs in about one in every 10,000 live births. Microtia can occur with other congenital abnormalities, but is most often seen as an isolated, independent deformity and is often associated with a small or absent ear canal. Those who are most commonly affected include Asians, Hispanics and Caucasians. Males and females are affected at approximately the same rates.

Microtia is classified into four different types:

Atresia is absence or underdevelopment of the ear canal and middle ear structures. Microtia is almost always accompanied by atresia because the outer ear and the middle ear develop around the same time during fetal development. Some microtia patients have what appears at first look to be a normal canal, but many of them end in a blind pouch (i.e. no connection into middle ear).

Some patients have small ear canals but their middle ear may be normal, and as a result their hearing can be normal or they may have an underdeveloped middle ear resulting in significant conductive hearing loss. Sensorineural function is usually normal as the cochlea and neural elements of hearing are unaffected.

The exact cause of microtia is unknown. Parents who have a child with microtia have an increased risk of 1 in 20 for subsequent children. The risk of a child with microtia eventually having a child of his/her own with microtia is also 1 in 20.

https://www.texaschildrens.org/blog/2017/04/microtia-and-atresia-101

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