Validation of Korean-Language Version of Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire-12 to Reflect the Disease Activity of Chronic Otitis Media / 대한이비인후과학회지

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: The Chronic Otitis Media Questionnaire-12 (COMQ-12) was developed in the United Kingdom to assess disease specific Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of chronic otitis media (COM) patients. We assessed the validity of Korean version of COMQ-12 (K-COMQ-12) and its correlation with the disease activity of COM classified according to the type of surgery. MATERIALS AND METHOD: We translated the original COMQ-12 into Korean and also performed a back-translation of the translated text into English. Enrolled were 106 COM patients and 106 healthy subjects. Cronbach alpha was used to evaluate internal consistency, and factor analysis was performed to prove reliability. We compared K-COMQ-12 scores between normal subjects and COM patients to assess validity. The scores were also compared by dividing groups according to disease activity of COM. RESULTS: Cronbach's alpha showed good internal consistency (0.939). There was a significant difference in K-COMQ-12 scores between healthy subjects (1.99±4.34) and COM patients (22.69±12.41). Also, scores go higher as the disease activity of COM increased. A cut-off score of 6 of K-COMQ-12 sets 0.915 of sensitivity and 0.934 of specificity. CONCLUSION: The K-COMQ-12 is a reliable and valid tool to assess HRQoL in patients with COM. The K-COMQ-12 could be also used as an objective tool that reflects the disease activity of COM.

A Clinical Study of the Ossiculoplasty in the Chronic Otitis Media / 대한이비인후과학회지

Reconstruction of the middle ear conduction mechanism continues to pose a significant challenge to the otolaryngologist. To investigate the suitable material and surgical method to get optimal hearing gain in the middle ear surgery, two hundred and twenty-two cases of different kind of ossiculoplasty in patients suffering from chronic middle ear disease at the Severance hospital and Soh's ENT clinic from January 1989 to December 1994 were included in this retrospective study and we reviewed the previous reports about the ossiculoplasty at the department of otolaryngology, Yonsei University College of Medicine from January 1981 to December 1988. A successful hearing gain was defined as a post-operative air-bone gap of