%0 Journal Article
%T Prospective Study on the Results of the Tuboplasty in Rural Region in Germany
%A Peter R. Issing
%A Hendrik Tebben
%A Emad Alsabbagh
%A Christian Issing
%J International Journal of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery
%P 1-11
%@ 2168-5460
%D 2025
%I Scientific Research Publishing
%R 10.4236/ijohns.2025.141001
%X 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 < 0.0001) without correlating with parameters such as age, sex, BMI, allergies or smoking. Middle ear pressure fell in average by −87 daPa, resulting in an improvement of the tympanogram type. The preoperative air-bone gap of 10.2 dB also was reduced significantly in most patients to 8.0 dB after the procedure. No notable complications occurred beside a sore throat due to the use of a laryngeal mask for ventilation during anesthesia in two cases. 4) Conclusion: In our experience, TP represents a less invasive and, in many cases, successful alternative to the established tympanostomy tube insertion with the advantage of an intact eardrum. It can also be offered and successfully performed in a rural setting.
%K Eustachian Tube Dysfunction
%K Tuboplasty
%K Eustachian Tube
%K Valsalva Maneuver
%K Grommet
%U http://www.scirp.org/journal/PaperInformation.aspx?PaperID=138701