Abstract

Objectives: The goal of this paper is to stimulate the clinical research in cartilage tympanoplasty, and to point out the possibility and need of clinical research. Furthermore, several research projects of clinical research will be elaborated for each method. For this aim, methods and the results of almost all published studies on cartilage tympanoplasty techniques with palisades, stripes and slices were analyzed.

Design: Out of the 23 well-defined cartilage tympanoplasty methods, classified in six groups, the clinical research in the oldest group, consisting of six different methods with palisades, stripes and slices, will be described and analyzed.

Patients and Methods: The six tympanoplasty methods with cartilage –(i) the underlay palisade method of Heermann, (ii) the on-lay palisade method, (iii) the method of broad palisades, (iv) the method of underlay stripes, (v) the method of on-lay stripes, (vi) the Dornhoffer mosaic cartilage tympanoplasty– are briefly described and illustrated. All published anatomical and functional results of surgery, achieved with each of the six methods, are described and analyzed.

Results: The clinical research on cartilage tympanoplasty with palisades, stripes and slices have been very scanty. The anatomical results are good and there have been few re-operations after cartilage tympanoplasty.

Conclusion: New clinical studies on cartilage tympanoplasty should be started and some of the proposed methods of comparison can be used.