Abstract
We reviewed 46 patients with cholesteatoma who were operated on at Tokushima University Hospital from January 2000 to December 2004. We analyzed the success rate of the hearing outcome and the rate of recurrence of cholesteatoma after tympanoplasty based on the criteria proposed by the Otological Society of Japan in 2000. The mean follow-up period was 15.3 months. The success rate of hearing was 60.9% in the patients with cholesteatoma. In most cases of choleateatoma, the method of canal wall down tympanoplasty was used, and the mastoid cavity was obliterated with cartilage and bony pate in cases with large mastoid cavity and the canal has also been reconstructed with the fascia in recent cases. The auricular cartilage tends to be used as a graft and the ossicular chain is reconstructed as type fl-i in most cases of cholesteatoma. No cholesteatoma recurrence or mastoid problems developed. Canal wall down tympanoplasty with soft canal wall reconstruction and/or partial mastoid obliteration is thus considered to be a useful method for preventing the recurrence of cholesteatoma and the onset of postoperative mastoid problems.
