Inlay Butterfly Cartilage Tympanoplasty (Eavey Technique) Modified for Adults

Introduction: Popular myringoplasty techniques include either an underlay or an onlay approach using tissues such as temporalis fascia or perichondrium as grafts. In 1998, Eavey described an inlay tympanoplasty technique in children using a cartilage graft which resembled butterfly wings. This technique was effective for closure of tympanic membrane perforations, while being more rapid for the surgeon and more comfortable for the patient. The aim of this study was to describe our results with modification of this technique in adults under local anesthesia.

Methods And Material: Cartilage butterfly inlay tympanoplasty was carried out in 20 adult patients to close small-to-medium tympanic membrane perforations over a period of 11 months. Compared with the original description, 3 modifications are noted: (1) adult patients, (2) local anesthesia, and (3) no skin graft over the cartilage. We evaluated the success rate and postoperative hearing results.

Results: Two patients were not evaluated in terms of hearing gain because they had profound preoperative hearing loss. Fourteen patients had a postoperative 4 pure-tone average between 0 and 9 dB, 3 patients between 10 and 20 dB, and 1 patient greater than 20 dB. The graft "take rate" was 90% (18/20) at the end of the follow-up period (mean follow-up 7.25 months). Seventeen of 18 successful cases had cartilage grafts that were intact and dry at the last visit.

Conclusions: The tympanoplasty technique described by Eavey is effective to close tympanic membrane perforation in adults as well as children. The technique modifications introduced here (abandonment of the skin graft and local anesthesia) reduced surgery time and postoperative morbidity. Postoperative results compared with those of the original technique were good.