Usage of Cornea in Tympanoplasty: A Prospective Study

CSOM is inflammation of the mucoperiosteal lining of the ME cleft characterized by ear discharge, permanent perforation of the TM, and hearing impairment. If perforation fails to heal, surgical closure is done by M-plasty (Type-I T-plasty). The graft material used to reconstruct the eardrum is mainly TF. The goal is to reconstruct the TM and sound-conducting mechanism in a long-lasting way. Here, in this study, corneal homograft was considered for closure of TM perforation as part of primary T-plasty. To utilize unused cornea as homograft in T-plasty for closure of TM perforation and obtain acoustic qualities similar to normal TM.

63 pts with TTD of ME in a hospital setup over a period of 2 years were considered for the study. All underwent T-plasty with use of Cornea and results were interpreted based on operative graft uptake and effective audible acoustics.

88% of patients showed successful corneal graft uptake, while 12% of patients with failed corneal graft uptake were planned for revision surgery with other graft materials. A literature review was done with a comparison in terms of various graft materials used to date, success of graft uptake, and audibility achieved following closure of TM perforation.

Corneal graft has shown fairly significant results in terms of efficacious graft uptake and efficient hearing acoustics after T-plasty.