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Updated: Dec 20, 2025
Endoscopic Cholesteatoma Surgery
Published on: January 19, 2022
Tympanoplasty With or Without Balloon Eustachian Tuboplasty for Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media With Obstructive
Cheng-Yu Hsieh1, Chan-Jung Chang1,2, Chuan-Hung Sun1,2
1Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Taichung Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Taichung.
Objective:
To further elucidate the role of balloon Eustachian tuboplasty (BET) in tympanoplasty, we conducted a study to compare the outcomes of tympanoplasty with and without BET for the treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) with obstructive Eustachian tube dysfunction (OETD).
Study Design:
Case control study.
Setting:
Tertiary referral center.
Patients:
A total of 70 ears diagnosed with CSOM (tubotympanic type) and OETD were included in this study. Thirty-five patients were prospectively enrolled for BET and tympanomastoidectomy between February 2018 and June 2019. Thirty-five control subjects were matched by sex and age and retrospectively enrolled for tympanomastoidectomy between July 2016 and January 2018.
Interventions:
BET, tympanomastoidectomy.
Main Outcome Measures:
The graft take rate, hearing levels, and Eustachian tube function test results.
Results:
The graft take success rate was higher in the BET group (80.0%; 28/35) than in the control group (68.6%; 24/35). However, the difference was not statistically significant. The average air-bone gap (ABG) improvement was 10.93 ± 7.70 dB in the BET group and 7.11 ± 8.08 dB in the control group, with a statistically significant between-group difference (p = 0.033).
Conclusions:
Our findings suggest that BET can objectively and subjectively improve the Eustachian tube function, with a slight but significant improvement in ABG despite the lack of a clinically significant improvement overall. However, it does not affect the graft take rate. In summary, BET could be used as an adjunctive procedure in the treatment of CSOM with OETD.
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