[Chronic suppurative otitis media. Experience with 140 cases at the Hotel-Dieu of France]

Chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) is a common disease especially in developing countries. In Lebanon, CSOM is a frequent complaint. This retrospective study is an objective evaluation of the cases we operated in HDF.

One hundred and forty cases of CSOM were collected between 1993 and 1997: 88/140 cases were simple CSOM and the others 52/140 cases had cholesteatomas.

There were no immediate postoperative complications reported (< 6 weeks). Beyond 6 weeks, with a mean follow-up of 20 months, 15% of the patients were lost for follow-up and we had 93.4% of success rate in CSOM and 88% in cholesteatomas. The recurrence rate of cholesteatoma was 14%. Children's cholesteatoma (below 15 years of age) were more aggressive than adult's cholesteatomas. In CSOM without cholesteatoma, the hearing gain was 5 dB. In CSOM with cholesteatoma the mean hearing gain was 4 dB. In conclusion the study revealed the importance of this pathology in our country with the relative high incidence of cholesteatoma compared to simple CSOM, this could be explained by the chronicity of the disease and the lack of preventive measures.