title: Impact of cartilage graft size on success of tympanoplasty.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In the last decade, there has been an increasing use of cartilage grafts in the primary repair of tympanic membrane perforations. The major advantages of cartilage are its stiffness and its very low metabolic requirements, which make it particularly suitable for difficult conditions, such as subtotal perforations, adhesive otitis and reoperation.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To analyze the impact of different perforation sizes requiring different sizes of cartilage on the anatomical and functional outcome after tympanoplasty.
  
  
  METHODS
  Through this prospective non-controlled, non-randomized study, 50 patients underwent cartilage type 1 tympanoplasty (20 females and 30 males), with a mean age of 19.3±9.8 years. According to size of perforation, patients were subdivided into three groups, Group I had perforation >50% of tympanic membrane area, in Group II patients the perforations were 25-50% of tympanic membrane area, and in Group III the perforations were ≤25% of tympanic membrane. All patients had pre and postoperative Pure Tone Average and Air Bone Gap frequencies (0.5, 1, 2, 4kHz). All patients were followed up at least 12 months after operation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The anatomical success rate among all patients was 92%, all groups showed statistical significant improvement between pre and postoperative air bone gap, no significant correlation between size of cartilage graft and degree of air bone gap improvement was noticed among the three groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Size of a cartilage graft has no impact on degree of hearing improvement or anatomical success rate after tympanoplasty.
authors: Sohag University, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Sohag, Egypt. Electronic address: Waleed88882001@yahoo.co.uk.
authors: Waleed
authors: W
authors: Abdelhameed
authors: Sohag University, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Sohag, Egypt.
authors: Ibrahim
authors: I
authors: Rezk
authors: Sohag University, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Sohag, Egypt.
authors: Alhussein
authors: A
authors: Awad
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004425:Ear Cartilage / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000637:transplantation*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D018058:Tympanic Membrane Perforation / Q000601:surgery*; D014433:Tympanoplasty / Q000379:methods*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Estudo prospectivo de enxerto de cartilagem; Prospective study of cartilage graft; Size of perforation; Tamanho da perfuração; Timpanoplastia; Tympanoplasty