[3] Risk factors gathered from studies include infants born underweight, male sex, women gravidity and parity, and medication use while pregnant.

[10][11] At age 5–6, CT or CAT scans of the middle ear can be done to elucidate its development and clarify which patients are appropriate candidates for surgery to improve hearing.

"Usually" is in parentheses because rarely, a child with atresia also has a malformation of the inner ear leading to a sensorineural hearing loss (as many as 19% in one study).

Unilateral sensorineural hearing loss was not generally considered a serious disability by the medical establishment before the nineties; it was thought that the afflicted person was able to adjust to it from birth.

In general, there are exceptional advantages to gain from an intervention to enable hearing in the microtic ear, especially in bilateral microtia.

Children with untreated unilateral sensorineural hearing loss are more likely to have to repeat a grade in school and/or need supplemental services (e.g., FM system – see below) than their peers.

[13][14] Children with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss often require years of speech therapy in order to learn how to enunciate and understand spoken language.

If atresia surgery or some form of amplification is not used, special steps should be taken to ensure that the child is accessing and understanding all of the verbal information presented in school settings.

If a canal is built where one does not exist, minor complications can arise from the body's natural tendency to heal an open wound closed.

Atresia patients who opt for surgery will temporarily have the canal packed with gelatin sponge and silicone sheeting to prevent closure.

For auricular reconstruction, there are several different options: Aural atresia is the underdevelopment of the middle ear and canal and usually occurs in conjunction with microtia.