Search

Introduction:  Chronic otitis media (COM) is an inflammatory condition associated with otorrhea as well as large and persistent perforations of the tympanic membrane in some cases. COM can also lead to cholesteatoma. Surgical treatment with canal wall-down and canal wall-up tympanomastoidectomy is considered for both types of illness. The choice of technique is controversial and is dependent on several factors, including the extent of disease., Objective:  We aimed to evaluate surgical outcomes in COM patients with and without cholesteatoma treated with canal wall-down and canal wall-up tympanomastoidectomy. Disease eradication and post-operative auditory thresholds were assessed., Method:  Patient records from the otorhinolaryngology department of a tertiary hospital were assessed retrospectively., Results:  Patients who underwent canal wall-up tympanomastoidectomy had a higher rate of revision surgery, especially those with cholesteatoma. However, there were no statistically significant differences in post-operative hearing thresholds between the two techniques., Conclusion:  The canal wall-down technique is superior to the canal wall-up technique, especially for patients with cholesteatoma.

Unlabelled: Nasal polyposis is a chronic inflammatory process of the nasal mucosa, characterized by multiple and bilateral nasal polyps. Different drugs have been used in its treatment. In order to study the results of different treatment modalities it is necessary to have some kind of staging., Aim: to present a new endoscopic staging method, based on nasal endoscopy and on the three-dimensional nasal polyp assessment; and compare its reproducibility with that from two other systems already established in the literature., Study Design: Cohort study., Material and Methods: Three experts assessed the exams of 20 patients with nasal polyposis at different times, before, at 15 and at 30 days after the start of oral prednisone, 1 mg/kg/day, during 7 days. We assessed the agreement rate among the experts, using Kappa for statistic analysis., Results: The three methods were reproducible, and the method hereby proposed had the least agreement among the examiners., Conclusions: the three-dimensional staging system proposed proved reproducible, despite showing less agreement among the examiners than the other as the other two methods.