Post Operative Quality of Life After Patulous Eustachian Tube Treatment

Patulous eustachian tube (ET) is a usually asymptomatic poorly known ET pathology. When it becomes so and thus impairs the eardrum (retraction pockets, cholesteatoma) or patients' quality of life (QoL), therapeutic management is proposed. The surgical treatment has diversified in recent years but remains dominated by filling spaces around the ET (autologous fat and/or septal cartilage grafting). Efficiency is traditionally objectivized by dynamic otoscopy, tubomanometry and audiometry, but QoL must also be taken into account and its postoperative assesment was the objective of this work.

Materials and Methods This is a unicentric retrospective study conducted from November 2016 to March 2019 on all patients with a disabling patulous ET, single or bilateral, managed surgically by autologous fat and/or septal cartilage grafting in investigators ENT department. Patients for whom a concomitant procedure was performed were excluded from the study.

The post-operative QoL assessment was performed using the Glasgow Benefit Inventory (GBI), postoperative self-administered questionnaire validated in ENT, including a general, physical and social evaluation. Predictive factors for QoL improvement were investigated among pre-, per- and post-operative clinical data.