Surgery for chronic ear disease in a non-university hospital: open cavity, obliteration and intact canal wall techniques.

The long-term results of surgery for chronic suppurative middle ear disease at a non-university ENT-clinic (Vasa Central Hospital, Finland) are reported. The material consisted of 273 ears, 65 of which had been operated on by open cavity techniques, 178 by the original Palva obliteration method, and 30 by the intact canal wall method. Post-operative cholesteatoma occurred equally frequently with the two canal wall down methods (7.7 and 7.3%, respectively) but was more frequent after intact canal wall surgery (23.3%). Hearing was better and the infection rate lower with obliteration than with open cavity techniques. Post-operative infection was the least frequent and the hearing result best in the intact canal wall ears, but compared to the other two groups the extent of disease found at surgery was considerably less in this group. The obliteration operation proved to be a safe method in the hands of a practising otologist outside university clinics.