An Effective Method to Collect Bone Dust for Mastoid Cavity Obliteration

To compare the volume of cortical bone dust collected and the time taken for bone dust collection by using a self-devised bone dust collector and that by manual method using a metal scoop in patients undergoing modified radical mastoidectomy with mastoid cavity obliteration. A prospective study was done in 62 patients of cholesteatoma. They underwent canal wall down mastoidectomy. Mastoid cavity was obliteration was done using cortical bone dust collected after dividing the patients randomly into 2 groups: (1) using a collector device made using a mucous extractor fitted with a nylon mesh of size 1″ × 3″ attached to the suction tube, (2) collected manually by using a metal scoop. The time taken for the collection of bone dust was recorded and the volume of bone dust collected was measured and recorded. We found that the time taken for the collection of bone dust was significantly lower and the volume of bone dust collected was higher using a mucous extractor as compared to that by manual collection using a metal scoop. The suction based mucous extractor performed better in terms of both time taken for collection and also in the volume of cortical bone dust that was collected as compared to manual collection using a metal scoop. Therefore, we conclude from our study that using the suction based mucous extractor is a more effective method of cortical bone dust collection for mastoid cavity obliteration.