Middle ear effusions -- complications of disease and treatment.

The results of treatment of secretory otitis media with commonly found disease in Finland is described. Treatment includes adenoidectomy and/or insertion of tympanostomy tubes with mastoidectomy in selected cases. Tympanostomy tube treatment results in an increased amount of visible tympanic membrane scar formation and tympanosclerosis, but these are of no major functional importance. In about 10 per cent of the glue ears a mastoid disease process complicates the disease. Here thorough mastoidectomy at an early stage is the treatment of choice. Cholesteatoma formation appears in about two per cent, but in the majority of cases this is not related to tympanostomy treatment but is due to the disease process itself.