Outcome of type-1 tympanoplasty

OBJECTIVE: The outcome of 97 patients who underwent tympanoplasty type-1 surgery by different ear, nose and throat surgeons was evaluated.

METHODS: This retrospective study was carried out from the records pertaining to all patients who had tympanoplasty type-1 at King Fahd Specialist Hospital, Buraidah, Al-Qassim, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during the years April 1995 through to April 2000. Specific criterias were setup for selecting all the patients involved and excluding others. Thus 97 ears were selected in this study. The factors presumed to influence the outcome included age, sex, nationality, affected ear, middle ear status at surgery, perforation size and surgical approach and techniques chosen by different surgeons. These data was collected in a set out proformae and tables and analyzed and discussed.

RESULTS: The patients age ranged from 11-45 years with a mean of 26.3, standard deviation 7.6 in all selected patients and also in the successful group. Very few children from age of 11-16 were involved. The male female ratio was 1:1.4 in the total selected group and 1:1.6 in the successful group. The success rate was 80% in males and 87.7% in females (p value 0.301). The results obtained showed no significant difference due to these factors except the permeatal approach (p<0.045) as compared to endaural approach. In this series the overall graft success rate was 84.5% in the total of 97 patients selected for the study.

CONCLUSION: The overall success rate coincided with published literature from elsewhere. The factors presumed to influence the outcome of tympanoplasty type-1 surgery showed no significant difference, except the permeatal approach as compared to endaural approaches.