Revision tympanomastoid surgery.

We conducted a retrospective study of 50 ears in 48 patients in whom we performed revision tympanomastoid surgery for chronic otitis media. We found that the most common probable causes for the failure of previous surgery were incomplete lowering of the facial ridge (94% of cases), persistent sinodural-angle air-cell disease (92%), persistent tegmental air-cell disease (88%), recurrent or persistent cholesteatoma (66%), persistent mastoid-tip air-cell disease (62%), a small meatus (60%), and persistent hypotympanic air-cell disease (56%). After a mean postoperative follow-up of 26 months, we found no appreciable difference in success rates between patients who had undergone only one previous surgery (93%) and those who had undergone more than one previous surgery (95%) prior to referral to our center. Follow-up hearing data revealed a statistically significant improvement in air and bone conduction and a nonsignificant reduction in the air-bone gap. We conclude that revision mastoid surgery following multiple earlier surgical failures does not carry an appreciably higher risk of failure than does initial revision surgery. Moreover, there appears to have been no change in the causes of failure following mastoid surgery over the past 3 decades.