ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Currently, the changes of taste sensation after unilateral injury of chorda tympani nerve during middle ear surgery remains unclear, particularly in objective methods, like threshold to each taste stimulus. This study aims to evaluate the objective changes of taste threshold according to the degrees of injury of chorda tympani nerve. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In 36 patients who underwent middle ear surgery, the degrees of injury were described as "intact", "stretched" and "sacrificed". The taste threshold to citric acid, NaCl, and sucrose were measured preoperatively, and 1 week, 1 month, 3 months after surgery. Subjective changes of taste sensation were questioned together. The amount of changes in threshold according to the degree of injury were statistically analyzed. RESULTS: There were no significant differences of threshold according to the degrees of injury in each taste. Several patients documented subjective taste changes, such as hypogeusia and parageusia. But there were no relationship between subjective and objective findings. CONCLUSION: These results suggest the probability of some compensatory mechanism after unilateral injury of chorda tympani nerve. There might be some discrepancy between taste threshold and real-world taste sensation.