Sutureless Tragal Cartilage Island Tympanoplasty: Our Experience

To evaluate graft take up and hearing improvement using the technique of tragal cartilage island in COM-mucosal type. Prospective study. A total of 258 type 1 tympanoplasty surgeries were done using tragal cartilage island graft from December 2013, to December 2015; in Jubilee Mission Medical College and Research Institute with a follow up of 1 year. Inclusion criteria—all the patients undergoing type 1 tympanoplasty for chronic otitis media (mucosal type, inactive) with an intact ossicular chain by the senior author. The youngest patient was 6 years old and the oldest was 64 years. This pattern was selected for getting a uniform pattern even though cartilage tympanoplasty can be done in other forms of COM also. Graft take up in our study was found to be 96.12% in 1 year of follow up. Closure of tympanic membrane was achieved in 248 of 258 cases. None of the patients showed retraction pockets or cholesteatoma during follow up. The average pre-op AB gap was 21.62 dB which was lowered to 4.22 dB post op. The mean gain in hearing was 17.37 dB. It is worthwhile to consider tragal cartilage island graft as an alternative to temporalis fascia.