Comparative Study of Cartilage Shield Tympanoplasty vs Temporalis Fascia Graft Tympanoplasty: A Retrospective Study

Background: This study was conducted to demonstrate a comparative study about graft uptake rate and hearing gain between cartilage shield tympanoplasty (CST) and tympanoplasty with temporalis fascia (TF) in patients with chronic otitis media (tubotympanic disease). Materials and methods: Cartilage shield tympanoplasty and TF tympanoplasty were studied in two groups. Group I containing 65 cases and group II having 80 cases with central perforations. Graft uptake rates and hearing improvement at 3 months postoperative follow-up were compared. Results: The graft uptake rates were 98.46 and 90% in groups I and II, respectively, at the end of 3 months. In total, 88% in group II and 90% in group I had improvement in hearing at 3 months of surgery. Conclusion: Conchal cartilage can be used effectively as a graft material for cartilage shield tympanoplasty. It has also shown superior autograft as compared to TF, not only because of better graft uptake rates and less partial failure rates but also due to the significant hearing improvement, talking in terms of mean AB gap in both types of graft materials.