Hearing Threshold Improvement Following Endoscopic Tympanoplasty in Patients With Safe-Type Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media: A Retrospective Pre–Post Study

Abstract

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the middle ear that is commonly associated with persistent tympanic membrane perforation and impaired hearing. Endoscopic tympanoplasty has increasingly been adopted as a minimally invasive surgical technique because it enables broad visualization of the middle-ear structures through the external auditory canal. Objective: This study aimed to assess the change in hearing thresholds before and after endoscopic tympanoplasty in patients with safe-type CSOM treated at a tertiary referral hospital in Indonesia.Methods: We conducted a retrospective observational study using a pre–post design at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, Dr. Soetomo General Hospital, Surabaya, Indonesia. Of the 24 patients who underwent the procedure during the study period, nine fulfilled the inclusion criteria. We evaluated hearing thresholds using pure-tone audiometry. We used the Shapiro–Wilk test to assess data normality, followed by a paired t-test for normally distributed paired observations. We set statistical significance at p < 0.05. Results: We included nine patients in the final analysis. Six patients (66.66%) were female, while three (33.33%) were male. The most frequently represented age group was 41–50 years. Endoscopic tympanoplasty was performed on the left ear in five patients (55.55%) and the right ear in four patients (44.44%). Mean hearing threshold improved from 46.11 dB preoperatively to 35.63 dB postoperatively, a mean improvement of 10.48 dB. The difference between preoperative and postoperative hearing thresholds was statistically significant (p = 0.003). A very strong correlation was observed between preoperative and postoperative measurements (r = 0.965). Conclusion: Endoscopic tympanoplasty was associated with a significant improvement in hearing thresholds among patients with safe-type CSOM in this single-center retrospective study.