Anatomic and functional results in tragal cartilage tympanoplasty in adults: Correlation with prognostic factors

Abstract

Objectives: This study aims to evaluate the graft success and functional results of cartilage island graft tympanoplasties performedin adult patients.Patients and Methods: Medical records of patients operated on for chronic otitis media at our clinic were reviewed. One hundredand ninety-five patients (212 ears) older than 16 years of age that had undergone tympanoplasty operation and that had beenfollowed up for at least six months postoperatively, were included in the study. The prognostic factors that could have impact on graftsuccess were analyzed. The pure-tone average and postoperative gain in air-bone gap (ABG) were recorded as the mean of 0.5,1 and 2 kHz thresholds.Results: Graft success was achieved in 191 patients (90%), and graft perforation occurred in 21 patients (10%). When the riskfactors that might lead to graft perforation were analyzed separately, the presence of cholesteatoma (p=0.014), and not performingmastoidectomy during tympanoplasty (p=0.031) were significantly associated with graft perforation. The average preoperative ABG,including all types of tympanoplasty operations was 40.20±17.3 dB, and postoperative ABG was 30.14±19.21 dB (p