Inlay butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty in children.

Objective: To assess the results of inlay butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty in children.

Study Design: Before-and-after trial; follow-up duration, 26.6 +/- 19.9 months (mean +/- standard deviation).

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Patients: Fifty-nine pediatric cases of tympanic membrane perforation.

Intervention: Inlay butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty was performed under general anesthesia according to the technique originally described by Eavey and modified by Lubianca-Neto (i.e., without any associated split-thickness skin graft).

Main Outcome Measures: Percentage of perforation closures, surgical complications, preoperative and postoperative puretone hearing thresholds; the results of inlay butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty were compared with those obtained in a retrospective series of 29 underlay fascia temporalis myringoplasties.

Results: The 71% "take rate" of inlay butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty was not significantly different from the 83% take rate obtained with underlay fascia temporalis tympanoplasty (p = 0.23, chi test). The anatomic results were improved when the graft diameter was at least 2 mm larger than the size of the perforation (81% take rate) (p = 0.009, chi test). No iatrogenic cholesteatoma was observed. Pure-tone hearing thresholds were improved at 0.5, 1, and 2 kHz, and stable at 4 kHz. Hearing levels were not different from those obtained with underlay fascia temporalis tympanoplasty.

Conclusion: Inlay butterfly cartilage tympanoplasty is a safe, efficient, time-saving, and easy technique of tympanoplasty in children. Anatomic results may be improved by associating a split-thickness skin graft and/or by trimming a tragal graft much larger than the size of the perforation.