A comparison of cartilage palisades and fascia in tympanoplasty after surgery for sinus or tensa retraction cholesteatoma in children

Objective: To compare cartilage palisades with fascia grafting in reconstruction of the eardrum after surgery for sinus or tensa retraction cholesteatoma in children, with respect to postoperative drum retraction and perforation, cholesteatoma recurrence, and hearing. Material: From March 1995 to October 2000, a total of 64 children, aged 5 to 15 years, underwent surgery for either sinus or tensa retraction cholesteatoma. The eardrum was reconstructed using cartilage palisades in 32 children and fascia or perichondrium in 32 children. Postoperatively, the patients were seen as out-patients and were recently reevaluated by otomicroscopy and audiometry. Main Outcome Measures: Postoperative drum retraction and perforation, cholesteatorna recurrence, and hearing (pure tone average, speech reception threshold, and air-bone gap). Results: All patients in the palisade group and all but one patient in the fascia group attended the follow-up examination. In the palisade group, the mean follow-up period was 37 months (range, 3-65 mo) and in the fascia group 52 months (range, 17-75 mo). Two (6%) retractions and no perforations were found in the palisade group, versus 12 (36%) retractions and 4 perforations (12%) in the fascia group at follow-up (both significant differences). No cholesteatoma recurrence occurred. Late hearing results in sinus cholesteatomas were significantly better in the palisade group. Conclusions: The comparison of fascia and cartilage palisade grafting for drum reconstruction after tensa cholesteatoma surgery in children indicates that the palisade technique may be superior in respect to prevention of drum retraction and perforation. Further, in sinus cholesteatoma surgery, the long-term hearing results are better when grafting cartilage palisades.