A study of surgical outcomes in chronic suppurative otitis media - tubo tympanic [mucosal] disease treated with myringoplasty / cortical mastoidectomy with type 1 tympanoplasty.

Auditory sensation is one of the vital sensations for existence. When such a great sensation is lost, life naturally loses its charm. Discharging ear and deafness are perpetual source of misery to humankind. Our country, being a developing nation with poor socio-economic status and low environmental conditions, chronic diseases of ear accounts for nearly 5% of population. Chronic suppurative otitis media is found to be the single major cause of recoverable conductive deafness. Surgery for tubotympanic type of chronic suppurative otitis media is the commonest otological surgical procedure in our country. The goal of otologists performing middle ear surgery is to make the patient free of ear discharge, correct the conductive hearing loss, to improve hearing, as well as to provide functional benefit to the patient. Unilateral conductive hearing loss is associated with various disabilities including difficulty in sound localisation, hearing & understanding speech. This is because, listening is a binaural task, while benefit to the patient is determined by factors such as hearing in the non operated ear. Hence, the subjective evaluation of the surgical results speaks better than the objective methods which provide only the technical success of the operation. This study discusses the various pre-operative factors which play a major role in the post-operative success of two various surgeries – myringoplasty and cortical mastoidectomy with type1 tympanoplasty conducted in the Department of ENT in Stanley Medical College for patients presenting with chronic suppurative otitis media – tubotympanic disease. The hearing benefit is determined by Air bone gap closure and also subjective evaluation of hearing is done by applying Belfast rule of thumb