Success and Key Success factors of Myringoplasty in Uttaradit Regional Hospital

PROBLEM/BACKGROUND: Tympanic membrane perforation is the complication of various diseases or conditions. It may occur with middle ear infection. Myringoplasty or tympanoplasty type I was invented to repair the perforated tympanic membrane and to improve the hearing result. Theoretically, key success factors are eustachian tube function, nasal function, atopy, nasopharyngeal abnormalities and severity of infection. OBJECTIVE: To reveal the outcomes of myringoplasty and key success factors of this operation. RESEARCH DESIGN: Retrospective analytic study. SETTING: Department of Otolaryngology, Uttaradit Regional Hospital. MATERIALS and METHOD: The documents of patients receiving myringoplasty at Department of Otolaryngology, Uttaradit Regional Hospital between 1st January 1996 and 31st December 2006 were reviewed. The obtained data was analyzed about the outcomes of myringoplasty and key success factors. Data analysis was done by paired sample t test and chi-square test with significant level at 0.05. RESULTS: The success rate of myringoplasty was 81.2 percent and hearing gain was statistically improved after the operation. No key success factor, even the surgeon factor, affected the tympanic membrane healing. In other way; age, size of perforation along with other middle ear infection had statistically impact to the hearing result (p=0.027, 0.001, 0.032 respectively). CONCLUSIONS: From this study, the outcomes of myringoplasty both in perforated tympanic membrane healing and hearing improvement meet the theoretical standard and are similar to international studies. This suggests that the treatment of perforated tympanic membrane in Department of Otolaryngology, Uttaradit Regional Hospital has good quality and standard.