Our expertise of blast injuries to the auditory system is limited and rare. This page covers the existing literature and provides a description of how blast waves interact with the ear, as well as information on the mechanisms of injury, pathology, clinical characteristics, and an overview of management concepts. Few otolaryngologists in Great Britain see many cases of blast injury to the ear, which is uncommon in times of peace. Occasionally, there are more casualties after a terrorist bombing, which leads to sporadic events, or there are isolated mishaps that result in isolated incidents. Otological injury is frequently missed in a patient who has several wounds, so it's important to note that Hadden et al. (1978) found just 15 perforated tympanic membranes among the 1535 victims of terrorist explosives in Belfast. There is a chance that some ear injuries went unreported even though many of these casualties may have been the victims of unconfined free-field explosions with a low incidence of perforations. In contrast, following a single blast at the Abercorn Restaurant, Kerr and Byrne (1975) reported on 60 ruptured tympanic membranes