Comparative study between fat plug and inlay butterfly cartilage grafts for myringoplasty in adults

This study aims to compare the graft uptake rate and hearing improvement of fat graft versus inlay butterfly tragal cartilage in the repair of perforations in chronic otitis media mucosal in adults. In this retrospective study, twenty-eight patients were included with small dry anteroinferior tympanic membrane perforations (less than 1/3 of the tympanic membrane). The age range was 18 to 44 years old. Myringoplasty was done under general anesthesia for 8 patients with a fat graft (FG) and 20 patients with inlay butterfly cartilage graft (IBCG). Six months postoperatively, a follow-up evaluation was done for successful graft uptake and hearing outcomes. The success rate of graft uptake in the first group (fat graft) was 6/8 cases (75%) while in the second group (IBCG) was 19/20 (95%) with no statistically significant difference (P = 0.0148). Also, there was no statistical difference between the two groups as regards postoperative ABG, improvement changes in ABG, and number of patients with improved hearing. Inlay butterfly cartilage graft is a useful graft in repairing small tympanic membrane perforations as regard graft take and hearing outcomes.