Effect of middle ear surgery on taste in patients with chronic otitis media

Abstract

Objective: The objective was to identify the gustatory changes in patients with chronic otitis media due to chorda tympani nerve involvement and to identify the gustatory changes with minimal manipulation, stretching, and cutting of the nerve during surgery and its postoperative recovery. Methodology: A total of 100 patients were selected. Clinical assay, with tests based on “taste strips” with different concentrations of salt, sweet, bitter, and sour, was done preoperatively. The taste strips used were sodium chloride for salt, sucrose for sweet, quinine sulfate for bitter, and citric acid for sour. The same was tested postoperatively after 1 week, 1 month, and 6 months. Analysis: Of the total 100 patients, 22 patients had squamosal disease, and the remaining 78 patients had mucosal disease. Fourteen patients were found to have taste changes preoperatively, of whom nine recovered their taste 1 week following surgery. Remaining five patients recovered at 1 month following the surgery. It was also observed that, in all the 25 patients where the nerve was cut, postoperative changes were noted, which recovered completely at the end of 6 months, except in two patients. In patients where the nerve was stretched, patients showed more gustatory alterations when compared with patients where the nerve was minimally manipulated. Conclusion: We conclude from our study that cutting the nerve produced less gustatory alterations, when compared with patients where the nerve was stretched. We also concluded that chronic inflammation of the middle ear itself can cause gustatory alterations, and these changes recovered once the disease was cleared.