The management of seeretory otitis media with effusion : an audit

Abstract EN

This study represents a five-year (1984-1988) audit of complications following the use of ventilation tubes (VT) in 402 children suffering from secretory otitis media (SOM) with effusion.

Two hundred and fifty one of these patients had myringotomy and VT placement, and 151 had myringotomy alone for SOM refractory to conservative measures.

The medical records of 251 children at King Fahd Hospital were suty'ected to departmental audit, but only 132 were complete enough to be analysed for the complications of VT insertion.

The complications re-corded were: otorrhoea in 19, recurrence of SOM in 9, tympanosclerosis in 5, and persistent perforation in 3 children.

An overall rate of 27% was considered to he high, and the question arose whether patients and parents should, in developing countries, be informed of the side-effects oftube-insertion and prospective out-come before surgery ? The paper discusses the out-come of the procedure and, by using this as an audit model, considers the necessity of effectively commu-nicating with the patient about prospective surgical procedures