Comparison of Endoscopic Versus Microscopic Tympanoplasty

Abstract

Introduction:Tympanoplasty is a common surgery for chronic otitis media and has conventionally been performed with a microscope for decades. The trend of endoscopic minimally invasive surgeries has been increasing worldwide for the last few decades. Few studies have discussed the outcomes of microscopic and endoscopic tympanoplasty. This study aims to compare results of tympanoplasty done with microscope vs endoscope in terms of graft take rate and improvement in conductive hearing loss.Materials and Methods:We did a retrospective review of 120 patients (54 male and 66 female) who underwent Type I tym­panoplasty at Liaquat National Postgraduate Medical Center from January 2019 to January 2020. We included 60 patients who underwent microscopic tympanoplasty and 60 patients who underwent endoscopic tympanoplasty. Postoperative graft uptake and hearing improvement were studied. Results:Overall mean preoperative hearing loss was 30.24 (±9.61) dB as compared to mean postoperative hearing loss, which was reduced to 19.36 ( ±8.54) dB, and the difference was significant (P-value <0.001. No statistically significant difference was found for air-bone gap closure between the two groups (P-value 0.78). Out of 120 patients, overall successful graft uptake was seen in 109 (90.8%). In microscopic tympanoplasty, graft take was 90.0%, compared to 91.6% in endoscopic patients. There was no significant difference in graft take in the two groups.Conclusions:The endoscopic tympanoplasty is comparable to microscopic in terms of graft uptake and hearing improvement.

Keywords

• endoscopic tymapanoplasty
• graft uptake
• hearing improvement