title: Cartilage palisade tympanoplasty in children and adults: long term results.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To show long-term anatomic and functional results of full thickness cartilage palisade tympanoplasty in children and adults.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 51 patients (56 ears); 9 children (12 ears) and 42 adults (44 ears) full thickness cartilage palisade tympanoplasty and interposition with malleus head autograft was performed. On average 11 years after the tympanoplasty, an otomicroscopy and a tonal audiogram were done to assess anatomic and functional results.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Anatomic results of 56 ears: 40 (71.43%) tympanic membranes have no anatomic irregularities; 14 (25.00%) have cartilage resorption (11 of them minor and 3 major resorptions), 2 (3.57%) have secondary perforation. In the group of children all ears tympanic membrane were with no or minor resorption and no perforations. Functional results (51 audiograms performed: in children 12 and in adults 39): pre- and post-operative average pure tone average air-bone gaps were 27.29 ± 10.26 and 10.73 ± 7.90 dB, respectively. In the group of children pre- and post-operative average pure tone average air-bone gaps were 29.44 ± 10.30 and 6.81 ± 3.47 dB, respectively. In the group of adults pre- and post-operative pure tone average air-bone gaps were 26.63 ± 10.30 and 11.93 ± 8.50 dB, respectively. The differences between the two groups preoperatively (z=0.733; p=0.463) and postoperatively are irrelevant (z=1.723; p=0.085). The hearing gain is bigger in children (F=4.788; p=0.033).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The full thickness cartilage palisade tympanoplasty with malleus autograft interposition is also nowadays a successful method in solving of an advanced ear pathology also in children.
authors.affiliation: Clinic of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Clinical Hospital Center Rijeka, Krešimirova 42, HR-51 000 Rijeka, Croatia. marko.velepic@inet.hr
authors.forename: Marko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Velepic
authors.forename: Radan
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Starcevic
authors.forename: Robert
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ticac
authors.forename: Milodar
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kujundzic
authors.forename: Mitja
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Velepic
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002356:Cartilage / Q000637:transplantation*; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008307:Malleus / Q000637:transplantation*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018058:Tympanic Membrane Perforation / Q000601:surgery*; D014433:Tympanoplasty / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult