Tympanic membrane retraction the nose with laser or balloon dilatation is being evaluated as a potential treatment for tympanic membrane retraction. Excision of the retracted segment of an eardrum, with or without placement of a tympanostomy tube has been advocated. Healing of the area can result in a more normal eardrum. Laser therapy has been used to shrink and stiffen retraction pockets. Tympanoplasty is the surgical technique of removal of the retracted area from the middle ear and reconstruction of the tympanic membrane. Some surgeons use cartilage (taken from the outer ear) to stiffen the eardrum with the aim of preventing further retraction.
Basilar membrane membrane is also the "base" for the sensory cells of hearing, the hair cells that are equipped with "Stereocilia". There are approximately 15,000 hair cells in each human ear (see figure). This function as base of the sensory cells gave the "basilar" membrane its name, and it is again present in all land vertebrates. Due to its location, the basilar membrane places the hair cells in a position where they are adjacent to both the endolymph and the perilymph, which is a precondition of hair cell function. A third, evolutionarily younger, function of the basilar membrane is strongly developed in