Functional outcomes of middle ear cholesteatoma surgery

Introduction. Chronic otitis media is defined as a persistent inflammation of the middle ear with signs of an infection lasting for three months or longer. Chronic otitis media may occur either with or without cholesteatoma. For both types of conditions, surgical treatment with closed canal wall-up or open canal wall-down techniques of tympanoplasty are considered. Our aim was to evaluate functional outcomes in two groups of patients (chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma and chronic otitis media without cholesteatoma) treated with various tympanoplasty techniques. Material and Methods. This retrospective study included 100 patients who underwent canal wall-down and canal wall-up tympanoplasty for the treatment of chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma and chronic otitis media without cholesteatoma from 2015 to 2016. All study patients underwent routine clinical and audiometric examinations. The study evaluated preoperative and postoperative functional results (evaluation of pure-tone audiogram screening). Results. A statistically significant lower incidence (p < 0.05) of postoperative air-bone gap < 20 decibels was established in patients with chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma, but there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups. There was a statistically lower incidence (p < 0.05) of patients with postoperative pure tone audiometry < 40 decibels in patients with chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma, but the difference between the two groups was not statistically significant. When analyzing the mean postoperative pure tone audiometry and air-bone gap in the study patients, canal wall-up tympanoplasty was found to be statistically more effective (p < 0.05). Conclusion. Various pathomorphological and pathophysiological changes in the middle ear, presence of extensively different forms of cholesteatomas, the choice of surgical procedures and poor preoperative hearing are in direct correlation with postoperative hearing.