Myringoplasty. A review of 472 cases.

We reviewed the records of 472 patients who had undergone myringoplasty during an 11-year period at the Otologic Medical Group. There was a statistically significant relationship between the size of the perforation and the degree of hearing impairment, but no relationship between the degree of impairment and the complaint of tinnitus. The majority of operations were performed using the lateral surface fascia grafting technique. Those 168 operations performed postauricularly were successful in closing the tympanic membrane perforation in over 97% of the cases and in reducing the conductive deficit to 10 dB or less in 88%. There were no total sensorineural impairments, although 3% of the patients developed a high tone sensorineural impairment. Blunting in the anterior sulcus and lateral healing of the graft were very uncommon. Canal skin was used as a graft in 16% of the patients. The graft take results and hearing results were less favorable than with fascia.