[Risk factors of wet ear and its impact on surgical outcomes of endoscopic type Ⅰ tympanoplasty].

Objective

To investigate the risk factors of wet ear status and its impact on the efficacy of endoscopic type Ⅰ tympanoplasty.

Methods

A retrospective analysis was conducted at the Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, the First Affiliated Hospital of Chinese People's Liberation Army（PLA）Air Force Medical University, on 160 ears that underwent endoscopic type Ⅰ tympanoplasty; these were assigned to a dry-ear group （n= 118） and a wet-ear group （n= 42）.Univariate analysis and binary logistic regression were used to identify risk factors for wet ear status. Postoperative outcomes, including tympanic meoombrane healing rate and hearing improvement across frequencies, were compared between groups.

Results

①Significant intergroup differences were observed in age, residual tympanic membrane status, external auditory canal condition, mastoid pneumatization（MC0）, and middle ear ventilation dysfunction（P<0.05）; ②The degree of mastoid pneumatization being MC0 is an independent risk factor for wet ear（P<0.05）; ③No significant difference in tympanic membrane healing rates was found（P>0.05）; ④The wet ear group showed significantly higher pre-and postoperative air-conduction（AC） and bone-conduction（BC） thresholds at 2 kHz and 4 kHz compared to the dry ear group（P<0.05）, though the postoperative air-bone gap（ABG） improvement was comparable.

Conclusion

Poor mastoid pneumatization is a risk factor for wet ears. The wet ear state has no effect on tympanic membrane healing and air-bone conduction gap, but patients in the wet ear group may have more severe inner ear or auditory nerve pathway damage.