2021 Volume 67 Issue 6 Pages 345-351
Recently, various closure methods have been reported for tympanic membrane perforation as an alternative to surgery. We herein report a simple method for closing a tympanic membrane perforation using chitin membrane and eardrops. The procedure was performed on 16 patients (18 ears) with tympanic membrane perforation at an outpatient clinic. The perforation margin was cauterized with silver nitrate, and the perforation was covered with a chitin membrane. The patients were instructed to use antibiotic eardrops daily at home. The overall closure rate of the perforation was 44.4%. In particular, the closure rate was low in perforations due to inflammatory chronic otitis media. Although the rate in the present study was inferior to those in previous studies, this method should be considered as a first-choice alternative to myringoplasty because it is simple and minimally invasive and can be accomplished within a short period of time.
