[A clinical comparison of orthodox myringoplasty and a simple method with fibrin glue]

Myringoplasties in children: our results

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES

Myringoplasty, one of the most frequent surgical techniques in otology, is the repair of tympanic membrane when the ear has only a perforation without any ossicular damage. The main objective of our work was to study the outcome of myringoplasty in patients less than 15 years of age. We also reviewed the existence of prognostic factors, such as Eustachian tube functionality, surgical technique and the hearing outcome after surgery.

METHOD

We present a retrospective study (1994-2010) with a total of 81 children (under 15 years of age) who had undergone myringoplasty during that period of time. For these children, we analysed age, sex, technique, approach, type of graft, type of perforation, anaesthesia, hearing gain and perforation closure. We correlated these variables with the success of the surgery.

RESULTS

The percentage of closure was 84% (n=68). The techniques used were underlay in 79.01% (n=64), overlay in 11.11% (n=9) and sandwich in 9.87% (n=8). The percentage of patients with hearing improvement was 88.40% (n=61).

CONCLUSION

Myringoplasty is a surgical technique that offers good anatomical and functional results in children. We did not find prognostic factors in our study. We found postoperative improvement of hearing but it was not statistically significant.

[Myringoplasty: our results]

Tympanoplasty is the surgical technique used to restore the anatomy and function of the middle ear. The tympanoplasty type I or myringoplasty is performed when the ear only has a perforation of the tympanic membrane without any ossicular damage. We present a retrospective study started in 1997 and finished in 2000 with a total of 118 cases who had undergone a myringoplasty along this period of time. The percentage of closure was 85.59% (n = 101). The techniques used were underlay in a 60.16% of the patients (n = 71), overlay in 34.74% (n = 41) and sandwich in 5.08% (n = 6). In the paediatric patients (under 14 years of age) the percentage of a successful graft following surgery was 88% and in the adults 83.87%. More than fifty years have passed. Since Zöllner and Wullstein described for the first time this type of surgery important because of its good results.