Paediatric Type I Cartilage Tympanoplasty with or without Concomitant Adeno-tonsillectomy – An Institutional Experience

Introduction                                                                           \r\nIn the management of COM in paediatric age group, eradication of the septic foci in the tonsil and the adenoids while addressing the dysfunction of Eustachian tube play a key role This study aims to assess the success rate of type I tympanoplasty with cartilage graft in mucosal type of chronic otits media in paediatric age group and finally, whether concomitant adeno-tonsillectomy plays any role in outcome of surgery or curing the disease process.                                   \r\nMaterials and Methods                                                         \r\nA prospective clinical study was done over a period of one and half years amongst 59 patients, aged between 5 and 12 years, presenting with chronic otitis media with dry central perforation of ear-drum and pure conductive hearing loss. Patients were divided into two groups. Group 1 (n1= 22) underwent type I cartilage tympanoplasty with adenoidectomy/ tonsillectomy/ both in the same sitting and Group 2 (n2= 37) underwent type I cartilage tympanoplasty without any adeno-tonsillectomy.                                                        \r\nResults                                                                                              Graft uptake was 86.4% in Group 1 at 6 months post-operative follow up while that in Group 2 was found to be 86.5%. The mean hearing gain in two groups were found to be 15.91±6.54 dB and 17.02±8.96 dB respectively. No significant difference was found between graft uptakes and hearing gains in two groups at the end of the study.                                                 \r\nConclusion                                                                             \r\nType I cartilage shield tympanoplasty, may be considered as an effective management strategy of paediatric chronic otitis media, mucosal disease. Type I tympanoplasty with concomitant adeno-tosillectomy did not prove to be better than type I tympanoplasty alone in terms of anatomic closure of tympanic perforation and hearing gain.