[Otologic surgical procedures in an Ear, Nose and Throat Department in Subotica from 1987 to 2001]

This paper deals with otologic surgical procedures performed in a an Ear, Nose and Throat Department during a 15-year period. The authors compared the number of otologic surgical procedures with the number of laryngomicroscopies and procedures performed in Waldeyer's ring.

From January 1, 1987 to December 31, 2001, 1184 patients underwent the following surgical procedures in total endotracheal anesthesia: 285 paracenteses, 473 ventilation tubes insertions, 175 antrotomies or mastoidectomies, 194 tympanoplasties, 34 radical mastoidectomies, 4 facial nerve decompressions, 5 exostoses or osteoma of the external auditory canal operations and 14 stapedectomies.

Otologic surgical procedures are presented in table 1. In Yugoslav literature Topolac reports approximately 700 tympanoplasties in a 10-year period (1968-1978). Radonjić and associates report 2272 ear operations in the period 1975-1985. Distribution of operations is presented in table 2, whereas in table 3 we can see that the number of operated ears is much greater than the number of operated patients.

We think that the number of operations is not bigger, because we operate only in critical cases. Our human and technical resources should provide advanced ear microsurgery, but only with financial and organizational support.