COVID-19 Information Read the Latest
Children's Hospital is part of the UPMC family.
Our Sites
Be safe anytime, anywhere.
To find a pediatrician or pediatric specialist, please call 412-692-7337 or search our directory.
A resource for our network of referring physicians.
For more information about research, please call our main office at 412-692-6438.
Ranked #6 Nationally by U.S. News & World Report.
At UPMC Children's Hospital, we offer many advanced tests and treatments that you can only find at specialized ear centers.
The staff in our Chronic Ear Clinic:
With our advanced equipment and experts in children's inner ear care, you can expect a timely and proper diagnosis.
We use a powerful microscope to magnify the inside of your child's ear. Your child will be awake and lying down.
This painless procedure allows us to see tiny structures in the inner ear and diagnose your child's condition.
An audiologist measures all aspects of hearing, such as:
We offer a range of surgeries and other treatments to improve your child's health and hearing.
This surgery repairs a hole in the eardrum that isn't healing on its own.
Holes may form in the eardrum due to an infection or injury.
Your child will be under general anesthesia and sleep through the procedure.
Surgeons use gel, paper, or a piece of cartilage to patch the eardrum. They mostly take cartilage from a discreet area near the ear's opening.
Your doctor may suggest tympanoplasty for your child to treat recurrent ear infections.
Closing the hole can stop bacteria from entering the middle ear. It can also improve hearing.
The mastoid bone is behind the ear and has hollow spaces. An infection or skin growth, known as a cholesteatoma, can fill those spaces and weaken the bone.
Your child will have anesthesia so they don't feel pain.
With a mastoidectomy, the surgeon:
Three connected bones in the middle ear transmit vibrations and play a vital role in hearing. Repeated ear infections, injury, or surgery can damage part or all of these bones.
Your surgeon will remove all or part of the damaged bone and replace it with titanium or plastic.
Your child will be under general anesthesia for the surgery.
Doctors place tiny tubes through the eardrum to help drain and air out the middle ear.
Ear tubes:
Your child's doctor will keep an eye on this. Since the tubes are so tiny, they may fall out without your child knowing. Or they may fall out and get stuck inside the ear in wax. The hole the tubes make in the eardrum normally heals on its own.
We'll follow up with you to make sure the ear tubes resolve your child's condition.
Damage to the tiny nerve endings in the ear or the nerve itself can be from:
When this happens, hearing loss is permanent. Called sensorineural hearing loss, it differs from conductive hearing loss, which is due to a blockage in the ear.
For children with sensorineural hearing loss, we offer a range of hearing aids that amplify sounds your child has trouble hearing.
Hearing aids include ones that fit behind the ear and in the outer ear.
We offer bone-anchored hearing aids for children with ear deformities and those who don't have an open ear canal.
Your surgeon will attach the hearing aid to the skull to send sounds to the inner ear.
We'll train your child to hear with the hearing aid. We also connect you with speech therapy and check your child over time to support their developmental needs.
Surgery to fix ear deformities from birth or injury can improve your child's hearing and self-esteem.
The Chronic Ear Clinic provides otoplasty for more minor ear defects, including lop ears and prominent ears. UPMC's Congenital Ear Clinic works on more serious problems, such as missing ears.
Children's Hospital's main campus is located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood. Our main hospital address is:
UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh One Children’s Hospital Way 4401 Penn Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15224
In addition to the main hospital, Children's has many convenient locations in other neighborhoods throughout the greater Pittsburgh region.
With myCHP, you can request appointments, review test results, and more.
For questions about a hospital bill call:
To pay your bill online, please visit UPMC's online bill payment system.
Interested in giving to Children's Hospital? Support the hospital by making a donation online, joining our Heroes in Healing monthly donor program, or visiting our site to learn about the other ways you can give back.