Ahmad Nasrat Al-Juboori
Traumatic tympanic membrane (TM) perforation has long been a challenge to the otologist, the objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of spontaneous healing of traumatic TM perforation and the factors influenced this healing process. This was a hospital based prospective study performed in the Department of ear, nose and throat (ENT), Al-Fallujah Teaching Hospital, Al-Anbar, Iraq, from August 2011 to April 2013, during this period 60 patients diagnosed having traumatic perforation of TM (62TM) due to bilateral affection in two patients. All those patients treated conservatively with systemic antibiotics, avoidance of let water in the ear and follow up for three months. The commonest cause of perforation was slap injuries (29%), perforation by solid objects (25.8%), explosion (16.1%), fall from height (12.9%), road traffic accident (9.7%), syringing (4.85%) and swimming (1.6%). The healing rate of perforated TM after three months of follows up was 82.3% (51 of 62 TM). There was no statistically significance difference between patients with, or without spontaneous healing of TM regarding the gender of the patient, laterality and causes of the injury (p>0.05). There was statistically significant difference between patients with, or without spontaneous healing of TM regarding age of the patient, severity of deafness, size of perforation (p <0.05). From this study we concluded that the chances of spontaneous healing of traumatic TM perforation were very high, so that, early surgical intervention of traumatic TM perforation is not indicated.
