Butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty: An alternative approach for management of small- and medium-sized perforations

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty for small- and medium-sized central perforations and compare it with temporalis fascia tympanoplasty. Materials and Methods: A prospective, comparative study was conducted on 110 patients, divided into two groups. Patients of tubotympanic type of chronic suppurative otitis media with 2–6 mm size perforation were included in the study. Fifty-five patients were operated by temporalis fascia Type I tympanoplasty and rest 55 by butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty (transcanal technique) under local anesthesia. Results were compared in terms of pre- and post-operative air-bone gap improvement and success rates. Results: In our study, in terms of outcomes, both techniques had similar results. The success rate was 93.7% in butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty and 96.3% in temporalis fascia group. However, in terms of time taken, butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty took less time (about 30 min) than temporalis fascia (about 55 min). Conclusion: Transcanal butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty is a very good alternative in small- and medium-sized perforations for conventional temporalis fascia tympanoplasty as it is simple, takes less time, day care procedure, on table hearing improvement, cosmetically no postoperative scar, no need of post aural preparation, and patient can go home within hours.