Population
Thirty-five children, 12 girls and 23 boys, whose indications for VT
were selected according to SFORL recommendations (French ENT
Society)(18), were included in this study (Figure 1).
Five children were excluded (4 for insufficient volume to allow
analysis, 1 for blood contamination of the effusion). Of the 30
remaining children, a collection of 30 OME fluid samples was collected,
11 from ears with tympanic atrophy (preoperative examination under
microscope done by two different examiners) and 19 from ears without
tympanic atrophy (preoperative examination performed by two different
examiners finding thinness from visual aspect under microscope).
For each patient, the effusion was collected from both ears prior to VT
insertion but only one ear was analysed per child. In case of unilateral
TM atrophy, only this sample was analysed. In the event of bilateral
atrophy or healthy bilateral eardrum, the laterality of the effusion to
be analysed was selected by a coin toss.
The study population ranged from 15 months to 10 years of age. Eighteen
right ears and 12 left ears were selected. There were no differences
(Chi-2 test with Prism’s Biostatgv and Graphpad software) between the
two groups (healthy and atrophic eardrums) in gender (p=0.28), age
(p=0.881), audiometric loss (p=0.299), or number of VT insertions in the
history (p=0.62 with the chi2 test and with a Cramer V=0.01). The
effusion was more mucous than serous in both groups (serous in 18% of
cases in atrophic patients and 15% in healthy patients p=0.865).