Abstract:Objective To analyze the impact of open tympanoplasty on hearing of patients with chronic otitis media. Methods It was retrospectively collected for basic data of 86 patients (a total of 93 ears) with chronic otitis media (44 chronic suppurative otitis media; 49 cholesteatoma) in the Third Affiliated Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. And the bone conduction and air conduction thresholds before and 6 months after open tympanoplasty were analyzed to explore the impact of open tympanoplasty on the hearing of patients with chronic otitis media. Results Based on the analysis of the changes in bone conduction and air conduction hearing thresholds under pure tone audiometry at different frequencies before and after surgery in 93 ears of patients with chronic otitis media who underwent open tympanoplasty, post-operative AC hearing improved significantly in the low-to-mid frequency range. At 0.5 kHz and 1 kHz, the post-operative AC thresholds decreased by an average of 5.4 dB and 5.5 dB, respectively, compared to pre-operative levels, with both differences being statistically significant (all P<0.05). Post-operative BC thresholds remained comparable to pre-operative levels across all tested frequencies (0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz), with no statistically significant differences (all P>0.05). No statistically significant differences were found in the degree of hearing improvement between the two disease types, among different disease durations, or between partial and total ossicular chain reconstruction (all P>0.05). Conclusions Open tympanoplasty could significantly improve air conduction while preserving bone conduction. And the reconstruction effect was not affected by the preoperative disease course, disease classification, or the type of ossicles implanted.Open tympanoplasty is effective in improving air conduction hearing of patients with chronic otitis media, which is a reliable surgical approach for hearing reconstruction in chronic otitis media.