Objective: Identify risk factors associated with failures in myringoplasty.
Material and methods: 290 cases were reviewed in the period of july 1997 to march 1999. An analysis of cases and controls was performed.
Results: The 290 myringoplasties were analyzed. The minimum period of follow-up was: 6 months. The estimated surgical success was 82.1%, and 17.9% of the cases were considered as a failure. There were no risk factors found statistically significant to the variables: age, sex, schooling or occupation of the patient, tobacco usage, alcoholism and associated illnesses; prior nasal or otological surgery or cause of the perforation nor evolution time whether or not it was a resident doctor who performed the surgery. These results are not definitive since the intervals of confidence were ample in the majority of these variables, which can be attributed to the size of the sample group. The significant risk variables found were: size of perforation greater than 40%, marginal localization of the perforation; tympanosclerosis, scar tissue and cholesteatoma.
Conclusions: The risk factors in the myringoplasty failure are similar to those reported in diverse studies. The variables highly significant for failure are details that should be watched in the technique.