[Prevalence of chronic otitis media in the young male population in Turkey].
OBJECTIVE
In this study, we investigate the prevalence of chronic otitis media (COM) in young men.


METHODS
Twenty thousand consecutive young men (mean age 22 years) who were under election for high performance military positions were examined by two otolaryngologists in the Military Hospital, İzmir. The otologic examination findings were noted. We evaluated the patients who have tympanic membrane perforation, retraction, adhesion, myringosclerosis and the patients who had underwent surgery before.


RESULTS
Three-hundred and fifty-five young men (1.77%) had COM. Other findings were retraction (n=66; 0.33%), adhesion (n=36; 0.18%), myringosclerosis (n=720; 3.6%) and cerumen (n=3200; 16%). We found out that five (0.025%) of the cases had radical mastoidectomy surgery and 16 (0.08%) of them had tympanoplasty.


CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of COM in young men is 1.77%. Although our study has a limitation because all of our samples are young men, the study is unique due to its large sample size.
Department of Otolaryngology, İzmir Military Hospital, İzmir, Turkey.
Murat
M
Salihoğlu
Umit
U
Hardal
Hakan
H
Cıncık
D002908:Chronic Disease; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009225:Myringoplasty / Q000379:methods; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000601:surgery; D015995:Prevalence; D018401:Sample Size; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D018058:Tympanic Membrane Perforation / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000601:surgery; D055815:Young Adult