Eardrum

MedlinePlus describes the eardrum as a thin piece of tissue that separates the outer and middle ear. The NIDCD explains that sound waves enter the outer ear and travel through a narrow passageway called the ear canal, which leads to the eardrum.

According to the NIDCD, the eardrum vibrates from the incoming sound waves and sends these vibrations to three tiny bones in the middle ear, called the malleus, incus, and stapes. The bones in the middle ear amplify, or increase, the sound vibrations and send them to the cochlea in the inner ear.

A ruptured eardrum is an opening or hole in the eardrum. MedlinePlus says ear infections may cause a ruptured eardrum, and that the opening most often heals by itself within 2 months if it is a small hole. Tympanoplasty is the name MedlinePlus gives to patching the eardrum with a piece of the person's own tissue, and myringoplasty to repairing smaller holes by placing gel or a special paper over the eardrum.

MedlinePlus says to contact your provider right away after your eardrum ruptures if you are very dizzy or have a fever, general ill feeling, or hearing loss.

Tímpano is the word used by MedlinePlus en español and by the NIDCD's Spanish page on hearing, and it is masculine: el tímpano. The Spanish dictionary defines it as a membrane, stretched and tense like that of a drum, that forms the outer limit of the middle ear and that in mammals and birds separates it from the external ear canal. The same dictionary entry has senses outside medicine, including a drum and, in architecture, the triangular space of a pediment.

MedlinePlus en español calls a ruptured eardrum ruptura del tímpano and lists perforación de la membrana timpánica and tímpano perforado among its alternative names; that list is the only place the cited pages print membrana timpánica. The NIDCD's Spanish page names the ear canal conducto auditivo and the three tiny bones of the middle ear martillo, yunque and estribo. MedlinePlus en español uses otoscopio for the otoscope and timpanoplastia for the repair that patches the eardrum.