Conserved Homoplastic Cartilage In Tympanoplasty

Abstract

According to published investigations the serviceability of cartilage homograft mainly depends on its weak antigenicity. The authors have reconstructed 103 eardrums and 8 ossicular chains by means of homoplastic cartilage from nasal septum, conserved in 70% alcohol. No reject reactions were noted, and in two revisited ears the graft was found to have no signs of resorption. In 15 cases out of 103 a secondary perforation occurred after myringoplasty with thin cartilage usually covered with thin fascia from cutside. The relatively high degree of secondary perforations is accounted for by the authors by the fact that large or total perforations were chosen for cartilage myringoplasty. The authors consider the cartilage homograft suitable as reconstruction material of the eardrum in cases with large or total perforation.