Hearing Outcome of Type 1 Tympanoplasty with Cartilage-Perichondrium Graft in comparison with Temporalis Fascia Graft

Background: Chronic otitis media (COM) is characterized by recurrent ear discharge and hearing loss secondary to tympanic membrane perforation. Type 1 tympanoplasty is the reconstruction of a perforated tympanic membrane with an intact and mobile ossicular chain. Among various autologous graft materials, temporalis fascia and tragal cartilage are commonly used. Objectives: The study determined to compare the hearing outcomes between tragal cartilage-perichondrium graft and temporalis fascia graft in type 1 tympanoplasty. Methodology: A quasi-experimental study included 60 cases of inactive chronic otitis media which was carried out in a tertiary care center. They were allocated into two groups of 30 patients each and were subjected to tympanoplasty using either tragal cartilage-perichondrium (group A) or temporalis fascia graft (group B) from 1st July 2022 to 30th June 2023. Results: In both groups, there was a statistically significant improvement in terms of mean air conduction threshold and a decrease in mean ABG postoperatively. The PTA changes in terms of success (P>0.05) showed no statistically significant difference between the groups. Conclusion: Both temporalis fascia and tragal cartilage-perichondrium are suitable graft materials for type 1 tympanoplasty and hearing gain through the tragal cartilage-perichondrium graft was better than the temporalis fascia.