Post-operative local complications
There was no significant difference in post-operative complications between the IOH and NIOH groups. Specifically, post-operative inflammatory complications were observed in two patients of the IOH group (one with local swelling and one with acute otitis media) and in 28 patients of the NIOH group (14.3%; thirteen with swelling, eight with otitis media, four with local infection, two with meningitis, and one with otitis externa). According to multivariate analysis, IOH is not associated with post-operative complications (p = 0.89, Table 3 ).