MASTOIDECTOMY AUDIT - RESULTS OF THE ROYAL-COLLEGE OF SURGEONS OF ENGLAND COMPARATIVE AUDIT OF ENT SURGERY

This paper presents the results of a national comparative audit of mas toid surgery, retrospectively analysing 611 operations by 55 consultan ts. Confidentiality for both patient and surgeon was assured. For chol esteatoma 80% of mastoidectomies performed were open cavity procedures and for other middle ear disease 58% used an intact canal wall techni que. Thirty-two surgeons used only an open cavity mastoidectomy for ch olesteatoma during the period of the audit. There was a statistically significantly greater number of wet ears with open cavities than with closed cavities, but the frequency of the operator did not correlate w ith the dry ear rate. Ten serious complications (facial palsy and dead ear) were recorded. All occurred in open cavity mastoidectomies. The post-operative hearing status was unknown in 40% of patients.