Limitations of tympanometry in diagnosis of otitis media with effusion

Some dismatch was noticed between results of automatic tympanometric screening and operative findings in cases of otitis media with effusion. Many cases which had type-B preoperative tympanogram showed no fluid during myringotomy. This prompted us to study this phenomenon in 50 patients with type B tympanogram. To assess the accuracy of doagnosis of otitis media with effusion, the tympanometric results were correlated to history clinical findings and audiometry in cooperative patients. This will help us to limit the increasing number of unnecessary myringotomies based on false tympanometric results which was shown by this study to have an accuracy of 75.26% only