Tympanostomy tubes and early post-operative otorrhea.

Otorrhea is a recognized complication of tympanostomy tube insertion. This may be caused by external contamination or by the pre-existing conditions in the middle ear cleft. Some surgeons try to reduce the risk of surgical contamination by using a non-touch technique, never allowing the gloved hand to come into contact with the tympanostomy tube. A prospective study was carried out on 66 children to evaluate the efficacy of the non-touch technique. One tympanostomy tube was inserted by the non-touch method with the contralateral ear acting as a touched control in each patient. Postoperative otorrhea occurred within 10 days in 1.67% of the non-touch ears and in 1.67% of the controls. This study demonstrates a low incidence of otorrhea in the early post-operative period with either technique. Time-consuming and costly sterile precautions are unnecessary for this common procedure.