A comparative study of canal wall up tympanomastoidectomy in dry and wet ear

Abstract

Background: Chronic suppurative otitis media is a common condition seen in patients attending otorhinolaryngology clinic. The discharging ear presents the otologist with the dilemma of operating on it or not. This is due to the widespread belief that the success rate while doing tympanoplasty on wet ear is decidedly inferior. Here with a study is under taken to compare surgical outcome of canal wallup tympanomastoidectomy in dry and wet ear. Objectives: To compare the success of graft uptake in dry and wet ears. To compare the post-operative hearing improvement in dry and wet ear following canal wall up tympanomastoidectomy. Methods:The comparative study was carried out on total 60 patients with chronic otitis media with central perforation. Of these 30 patients belong to dry ear group and 30 patients with mild, mucoid discharge as wet ear group. All patients underwent canalwall up tympanomastoidectomy under generalanesthesia. Post- operativelyall patientswere evaluatedfor graftuptakeand hearing improvement by pure tone audiometry at 3^rd month follow-up. Results: In our study, the successful graft uptake was seen in 76.7% in dry ear and 80% in wet ear, statistically p-value is 0.75 (p>0.05) which is insignificant. Postoperatively hearing gain was (0-5 dB) in 2 patients with dry ear and 1 patient  with wet ear; ( 6-10 dB) in 5 patients with dry ear and 10 patients with wet ear; more than 10 dB in 12 patients with dry ear and 8 patients with wet ear, statistically p-value is 0.55 (p>0.05) which isinsignificant. Conclusion: The very fact that the p-value is insignificant in both,thegraftup taker ate and hearing improvement,shows that the presence of discharge in the ear at the time of operation does not interfere with the result of canal wall up tympanomastoidectomy.

Keywords: canal wall up tympanomastoidectomy, dry ear, wet ear .