Type 1 Revision Tympanoplasty Using Tragal Cartilage in a Tertiary Care Centre: A Prospective Observational Study

To evaluate graft success rate and hearing outcome in type 1 revision tympanoplasty using tragal cartilage graft. It is a prospective observational study conducted at Department of ENT, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute from July 2017 to June 2019. Forty four patients between the age group 18-60 years undergoing type 1 revision tympanoplasty, with conductive hearing loss were enrolled.There were 27 males and 17 female patients in the study group. Cartilage tympanoplasty was done using thin tragal cartilage graft . Postoperative hearing gain and graft uptake was assessed at third month. Graft uptake and hearing improvement was assessed 3 months postoperatively in 44 patients. Forty patients had graft uptake (90.90%). The postoperative hearing gain was 7.12 ± 2.99 dB (p = 0.001) which was statistically significant. Tragal cartilage is a good option as graft material in revision cases in terms of ease of graft placement, better graft uptake and audiological outcome with no complications like lateralization of graft, medialization of graft, epithelial pearl formation and anterior blunting.