Circumferential subannular tympanoplasty: surgical and hearing outcome in 224 ears with subtotal perforation.

BACKGROUND

Subannular tympanoplasty is a newer technique with limited research articles in the literature. These articles have limitation in terms of sample data. We reviewed outcome of subannular tympanoplasty performed during last five years in our center.

OBJECTIVE

To determine the surgical and hearing outcome of circumferential subannular tympanoplasty.

METHODS

A retrospective observational study was performed in a tertiary care academic center involving 224 subjects with mucosal chronic otitis media who underwent circumferential subannular type 1 tympanoplasty.

RESULTS

Complete neo-tympanum was found in 213 cases (95.1%) at the end final follow period of 12 months after surgery. Eleven tympanic membranes did not take up the graft and considered failure at the end of 6 months after surgery. All of them were subjected for revision surgery and showed intact neo-tympanum after 12 months of surgery. The hearing outcome showed significant improvement in air conduction thresholds from 42.54 ± 13.04 dB to 30.48 ± 10.61 dB at the end of one year. No surgical complication was observed in the study group.

CONCLUSION

The circumferential subannular tympanoplasty carries good surgical success and should be preferred in large and subtotal perforations. Randomized controlled trials are warranted to overcome the limitations in the present study.

SIGNIFICANCE: This is the first study showing outcome of subannular tympanoplasty in large sample size of more than 200.