Tympanoplasty using conchal cartilage graft.

Cartilage has been used successfully as a graft in middle ear surgery. It used to be reserved for advanced pathology because of its possible detrimental effect on postoperative hearing. Recent papers however failed to prove this effect. The present study describes the authors' experience in 161 cases of conchal cartilage tympanoplasty. In tympanoplasty type I postoperative pure tone average air-bone gap was within 20 dB in 88.4% of the cases. If combined with ossiculoplasty when the stapes was intact, 72% was within 20 dB and when the stapes was absent, 54.5% was within 20 dB. Taking rate of the graft was 95.6% (154/161) with 22% (36/161) representing revision surgery. At present the author uses cartilage graft as a first choice in tympanoplastic procedures.