Pediatric laser-assisted tympanostomy

Objective: To evaluate effectiveness of laser-assisted tympanostomy in treatment of pediatric patients with chronic otitis media with effusion. Study Design: Retrospective review of 23 pediatric patients who received office laser-assisted tympanostomy. Methods: A CO, laser attached to an operating microscope with a microscope laser adaptor device or the handheld Oto-LAM (Needham, MA) was used to perform all of the tympanostomies, The average diameter of tympanostomy was 2 mm; on average, 13.6 W was applied for 0.13 seconds. Results: Laser-assisted tympanostomy was performed on 37 pediatric ears (patient age range, 2-16 y) for the diagnosis of chronic otitis media with effusion. Average follow-up time was 4.7 weeks. At the time of the follow-up examination, 46% of the ears had no evidence of fluid and required no further intervention. Forty-nine percent of the ears required placement of pressure equalization tubes. The average SRT improved from 30.8 dB preoperatively to 21.03 dB postoperatively. Conclusions: Laser-assisted tympanostomy appears to be an effective treatment for chronic otitis media with effusion in pediatric patients.