title: Comparison of the incidence of cholesteatoma surgery before and after using ventilation tubes for secretory otitis media.
abstract: Inserting ventilation tubes has become, probably, the most common surgical operation performed on children in the free world. In our study, we attempted to examine whether the widely used procedure of inserting ventilation tubes in children with secretory otitis media is indeed justified in the long term. For this purpose, we have studied the influence of the procedure on the formation of cholesteatoma by comparing the incidence of cholesteatoma surgery before and after using ventilation tubes in our department. The data were divided into two periods. The first period included the number of operations in the 10 years (1961-1970) before ventilation tubes were used as a routine treatment for secretory otitis media in our department. The second period included the number of operations in the last 10 years (1989-1998) following the usage of ventilation tubes over 30 years. We found that the number of cholesteatoma operations has decreased, from 413 operations in the 10 years before ventilation tubes were used to 228 operations over the last 10 years. The number of operations per 10000 of the entire population has decreased from 20 operations to 6.6 operations after using ventilation tubes (P=0.0000001). We have shown that the incidence of surgery for cholesteatoma has been declining. Having analyzed the options that might cause this decline, we believe that using ventilation tubes in secretory otitis media might help to reduce the incidence of cholesteatoma surgery in the long term.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Ha'Emek Medical Center, Afula, Israel. rakover@clalit.org.il
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Rakover
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Keywan
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rosen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D018424:Cholesteatoma, Middle Ear / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007557:Israel / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008876:Middle Ear Ventilation; D010034:Otitis Media with Effusion / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000601:surgery*; D013506:Otologic Surgical Procedures / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome