Abstract:Objective To investigate the surgical effect of endoscopic and microscopic type I tympanoplasty for tympanic membrane perforation.Methods One hundred and twenty-two patients(122 ears)with chronic suppurative otitis media treated with type I tympanoplasty in our department from Jan 2017 to Oct 2020 were included. Of them, 62 received endoscopic tympanoplasty(ETT)and 60 received microscopic tympanoplasty (MTT). The postoperative follow-up period was at least 6 months. The intraoperative bleeding, chorda tympani nerve injury rate, operation time, postoperative discharge time, total hospitalization expense, graft success rate,pre- and post-operative average air conduction hearing threshold (PTA), air-bone gap (ABG) were compared between the two groups, and visual analogue score (VAS) was adopted to evaluate postoperative pain within 24 h.Results Compared with the MTT group, the ETT group had less intraoperative blood loss, shorter operation time, lighter postoperative pain, and shorter discharge time, as well as less total hospitalization expenses. All the differences were statistically significant (all P<0.05). The graft success rates in the ETT and MTT groups were 93.5% and 90%, and intraoperative chorda tympani nerve injury rates were 6.5% and 8.3%, respectively. The preoperative PTA and AGB of the ETT group were (43.2±11.3) dB and (19.8±8.6) dB, and those of the MTT group were (45.6±12.1) dB and (21.3±9.4) dB, respectively. At 6 months after operation, the PTAs of the ETT and MTT groups decreased, which were (33.7±8.3) dB and (35.3±9.1) dB, and their ABGs were reduced to (9.4±6.1) dB and (10.7±6.4) dB respectively. The differences between the two groups were statistically insignificant (P>0.05).Conclusion Compared with MTT, ETT significantly reduces postoperative pain, shortens operation time, hospital stay, and reduces total hospital expenses. With equivalent postoperative perforation repair, hearing improvement and complications to MTT, ETT is worthy of popularization in middle ear surgery.