Inlay butterfly cartilage myringoplasty: safe and gentle technique

What is it about?

The inlay cartilage butterfly myringoplasty is a simple technique with few complications for closure of tympanic membrane defects introduced by Eavey 1998. Eavey used a cartilage transplant with perichondrium left on both sides and additional coverage with a split thickness skin graft. We used a to date not described simple cartilage transplant without perichondrium. Tympanic defect closure rate, complications, patient assessment and pure tone audiogram were analysed.

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Why is it important?

All defects were closed six months postoperative and preoperative otorrhea that existed in six patients disappeared in all cases. Hearing assessment showed subjective and objective improvement. The inlay cartilage butterfly myringoplasty is a safe and gentle technique for tympanic membrane defect closure. It could be shown that pure cartilage transplants without perichondrium were enwrapped by the tympanic membrane and covered by capillaries.