Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the postoperative infection and graft success rates, and the hearing improvement, after endoscopic cartilage underlay myringoplasty with versus without antibiotic ointment coating.
Materials and methods: This was a retrospective case-control study. The clinical records of patients who underwent endoscopic cartilage underlay myringoplasty and who met the selection criteria were retrieved and divided based on middle ear packing status into groups with antibiotic ointment packing (AOP group) and with no antibiotic ointment packing (no-AOP group). The operation time, postoperative infection, graft success status, and hearing improvement were compared between the 2 groups.
Results: Patients with 166 perforations constituted the AOP group, and patients with 141 perforations comprised the no-AOP group. At 3 months postoperatively, middle ear infections had occurred in 24 (14.5%) ears in the AOP group and 4 (2.8%) ears in the no-AOP group (P < .01). At 12 months postoperatively, the graft success rate was 81.3% in the AOP group and 97.9% in the no-AOP group (P < .01). No significant group differences were observed, preoperatively (P = .657) or postoperatively (P = .578), in the air-bone gap (ABG) values or mean ABG gains (P = .758).
Conclusion: Middle ear packing without antibiotic ointment coating does not increase the postoperative infection rate or reduce the graft success rate after endoscopic cartilage underlay myringoplasty compared to antibiotic ointment coating. On the contrary, coating with antibiotic ointment increases the risk of postoperative infection given the complexity of middle ear manipulation.
Keywords: antibiotic ointment; cartilage graft; myringoplasty; postoperative infection; underlay technique.