TITLE:
Prospective Study on the Results of the Tuboplasty in Rural Region in Germany
AUTHORS:
Peter R. Issing, Hendrik Tebben, Emad Alsabbagh, Christian Issing
KEYWORDS:
Eustachian Tube Dysfunction, Tuboplasty, Eustachian Tube, Valsalva Maneuver, Grommet
JOURNAL NAME:
International Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery,
Vol.14 No.1,
January
2,
2025
ABSTRACT: 1) Introduction: Ventilation disorders of the middle ear play a major role in everyday clinical ENT-practice and sometimes represent a major therapeutic challenge. In addition to the conventional therapy of tympanostomy tube insertion, tuboplasty (TP) offers a less invasive option for treating this problem. The study should examine whether TP can be performed in a rural setting. 2) Material and methods: This is a prospective, monocentric study of patients scheduled for TP because of tubal ventilation disorder (TVD) in a rural region of Germany. The diagnosis was established after a thorough clinical examination and by assessing the possibility of performing the Valsalva maneuver, the tympanogram type, recording the middle ear pressure and air-bone gap. The subjective impairment caused by the TVD was evaluated using the EDTQ-7 questionnaire pre- and approximately 3 months postoperatively. 3) Results: Sixty-two patients with 92 TP were included with a mean age of 44.1 years. The EDTQ-7 score decreased highly significantly from 3.6 to 1.7 (p