Hearing outcome after type I tympanoplasty: a retrospective study.

The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the hearing outcomes using temporalis fascia graft for tympanic membrane reconstruction in type 1 tympanoplasty. It included 100 patients with tubotympanic type of chronic suppurative otitis media requiring only tympanic membrane reconstruction. Patients requiring ossicular reconstruction or with attico antral disease were excluded. Patients were assessed after 3, 6 months and 1 year for graft status and hearing outcome. Hearing evaluation was done using tuning fork tests and pure tone audiometry. In total, 88 out of 100 patients had intact and completely healed grafts at 1 year postoperatively (success rate of 88 %). The Hearing gain achieved was 14.55 dBs and the mean air bone gap reduction was 11.94 dBs. This reduction was statistically significant when compared to the pre operative hearing conditions.