THE PROGNOSTIC VALUE OF MUCOCILIARY CLEARANCE IN PREDICTING SUCCESS IN TYMPANOPLASTY

Mucociliary and equipressive eustachian tube functions have been studi ed, using saccharin solution (five per cent sodium saccharinate) and t ubal manometry respectively, in 58 ears with chronic disease undergoin g tympanoplasty. The position of the perforation site determines the r esults as the poorest results are obtained from the posterior ones, po sitive cases (47 per cent) and mean transport time (37.7 minutes), com pared to the greater percentage of positive cases (86 per cent) and me an transport time (22.2 minutes) for anterior perforations. When both parameters are analysed together there is a direct relationship betwee n normal equipressive function and normal mucociliary transport time a nd between negative transport time and tubal blocking. Significant dif ferences in transport times have been found for the anterior and poste rior perforations being shorter for the anterior ones. When surgical o utcome is correlated with mucociliary transport, the normal transport time percentage is seen to be considerably higher in the success group (50 per cent) than in the failure group (22 per cent).