Jb. Kinsella et al., TYMPANOSTOMY TUBES AND EARLY POSTOPERATIVE OTORRHEA, International journal of pediatric otorhinolaryngology, 30(2), 1994, pp. 111-114
Otorrhea is a recognized complication of tympanostomy tube insertion.
This may be caused by external contamination or by the pre-existing co
nditions in the middle ear cleft. Some surgeons try to reduce the risk
of surgical contamination by using a non-touch technique, never allow
ing the gloved hand to come into contact with the tympanostomy tube. A
prospective study was carried out on 66 children to evaluate the effi
cacy of the non-touch technique. One tympanostomy tube was inserted by
the non-touch method with the contralateral ear acting as a touched c
ontrol in each patient. Postoperative otorrhea occurred within 10 days
in 1.67% of the non-touch ears and in 1.67% of the controls. This stu
dy demonstrates a low incidence of otorrhea in the early post-operativ
e period with either technique. Time-consuming and costly sterile prec
autions are unnecessary for this common procedure.