YUNG’S PERCUTANEOUS MASTOID VENT-A MEDIUM TERM FOLLOW UP STUDY

M.W.Yung PhD. FRCS.DLO,

ENT Consultant, The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust

Ipswich, United Kingdom

Objectives: A percutaneous mastoid vent was designed by the author to provide permanent ventilation to the middle ear. It consists of an outer titanium tube which osseo-intagrates with the mastoid bone and an inner teflon tube which protrudes into the mastoid antrum. This is a medium term follow up study on the patients treated by the author since 1995.

Study design and setting: This is a retrospective study of 14 patients who had the mastoid vent inserted since 1995 at the clinic of a district general hospital.

Patients: All the patients had ventilation problems of the ear which failed to respond to conventional treatment. Three had persistent OME;10 had a completely collapsed eardrum; 1 had failed tympanoplasty with re-collapsed eardrum.

Intervention and outcome measure: The mastoid vent extrusion rate, surrounding skin reaction, patency of the vent and the functional results were assessed with a follow up period of between 9 to 36 months.

Results: Only 1 vent was extruded in a patient who had a previous cortical mastoidectomy. There was no dermatitis around any of the vent. All the vent remained patent and 9 out of the 14 ears were successfully ventilated. Four ears had adhesions within the mastoid antrum, mainly due to a previous cortical mastoidectomy. Six out of 8 ears with intact ossicles also had an improvement of hearing.