September 2025, Volume 3, Issue 9

Author

Gayathri Bhaskaran, Vijay Ramalingam, Monica Mrudubhashini Michael, Kandasamy Kamindan and Sunil Kumar Saxena

Abstract

Introduction: Chronic otitis media (COM) remains a challenging condition to treat, particularly in its squamous type manifestation. In recent years, there has been increasing interest in the use of endoscopic ear surgery as an alternative to traditional microscope-assisted techniques. This study aimed to compare the efficacy of endoscopic ear surgery with microscope-assisted surgery in terms of disease clearance and hearing improvement among patients with COM-squamous type. Methodology: A double-blinded randomised clinical trial was conducted at a tertiary care hospital in South India, involving 112 patients aged 18-50 years. Patients were randomised to either endoscope-assisted or microscope-assisted surgery groups, and disease clearance and hearing improvement were assessed over a 6-month follow-up period. Results: All statistical analyses were done using SPSS software version 19.0. Chi Square and paired t tests were used for analysis. There was no statistically significant difference between the two groups in terms of disease clearance (p = 0.051). Conclusion: It is thus concluded from our study that endoscope assisted ear surgery gives equivalent surgical outcomes when compared to microscopic ear surgery.