title: Recurrence of attic cholesteatoma: different methods of estimating recurrence rates.
abstract: One problem in cholesteatoma surgery is recurrence of cholesteatoma, which is reported to vary from 5% to 71%. This great variability can be explained by issues such as the type of cholesteatoma, surgical technique, follow-up rate, length of the postoperative observation period, and statistical method applied. The aim of this study was to illustrate the impact of applying different statistical methods to the same material. Thirty-three children underwent single-stage surgery for attic cholesteatoma during a 15-year period. Thirty patients (94%) attended a re-evaluation. During the observation period of 15 years, recurrence of cholesteatoma occurred in 10 ears. The cumulative total recurrence rate varied from 30% to 67%, depending on the statistical method applied. In conclusion, the choice of statistical method should depend on the number of patients, follow-up rates, length of the postoperative observation period and presence of censored data.
authors.affiliation: ENT Department, Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, Denmark.
authors.forename: S E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Stangerup
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Drozdziewicz
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tos
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hougaard-Jensen
mesh_terms: D000206:Actuarial Analysis; D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D018424:Cholesteatoma, Middle Ear / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000453:epidemiology*; D013223:Statistics as Topic