The efficacy of fat myringoplasty in small central perforation of pars tensa
<p class="abstract"><strong>Background:</strong> In the present study, an attempt was made to study the effectiveness of fat graft material and the improvement in hearing following fat myringoplasty in small central perforations of pars tensa.</p><p class="abstract"><strong>Methods:</strong> This prospective study was carried out in our tertiary centre between October 2014 to October 2015 in 38 patients selected randomly who attended our ENT OPD. Patients with tubotympanic type of chronic suppurative otitis media CSOM (TT), with dry small central perforation involving less than 25% of tympanic membrane (TM) were included. Patients with ossicular fixation or disruption with air bone gap (ABG) >40dB were excluded. All procedures were performed under local anesthesia (LA). Fat graft was harvested from ear lobule and was placed through endomeatal microscopic approach after freshening perforation margin. All patients were followed up to 5months postoperative period and graft status and audiological assessment was made. </p><p class="abstract"><strong>Results:</strong> In 86.8% cases (33 patients) graft was taken up while in 13.2% cases (5 patients) graft was not taken up. Mean pre-operative air conduction in right/left ear was 28.5±7.6/27.1±8.5 and post-operative was 24.9±5.3/23.4±6.9 dB respectively. Similarly, it was seen that mean pre-operative air bone gap in right/left ear was 17.6±7.2/17.0±7.4 and post-operative was 14.0±5.3/13.2±6 dB respectively.</p><strong>Conclusions:</strong> It is a very safe, simpler procedure and in this we don’t disturb the annulus so the chance of lateralization or medialization of graft is nil. During fat myringoplasty the angle of tympanic membrane and anterior recess is maintained in natural position and we don’t disturb acoustics, so fat myringoplasty is an excellent option especially for small perforation.