Role of Topical Estrogen in Outcomes of Myringoplasty: Does it Really Affect the Results of Graft Success and Hearing Thresholds?

The tympanic membrane forms a barrier between the external auditory canal and the middle ear. In the inactive mucosal type of chronic otitis media, there is a perforation in the tympanic membrane which is surgically managed by Myringoplasty. Estrogen as a growth factor has been shown to have a mitogenic effect on keratinocytes thus hastening the rate of epithelialization following injury. This property of estrogen is being studied in this study for its role in the outcomes of myringoplasty. This study was carried out from January 2021 to December 2022 in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology, of a tertiary teaching hospital in North India. Patients were assessed by history, examination, otoscopy, Audiometry, and oto-endoscopy. A total of 88 patients were taken out of which 44 patients underwent myringoplasty in which topical estrogen (estradiol valerate solution) was used, and the remaining 44 patients were taken as controls. Patients were then assessed post-operatively based on Audiometry results and graft uptake status. In the estrogen group successful Graft uptake was in seen 40 (90.9%) patients and failed in 4 (9.1%), while in the control group, it was successful in 37 (84.1%) patients and failed in 7 (15.9%), statistically there was no significant difference between two groups in terms of graft uptake (p value = 0.334). Post-operatively, in the estrogen group, the mean change in Air Conduction (AC) was 15.5 dB, the change in the air-bone gap (ABG) was 11.5 dB and for Bone Conduction (BC) it was 3.2 dB. However, in the control group mean post-operative changes in Air Conduction, Air-Bone Gap, and Bone Conduction were 12 dB, 10.7 dB, and 0.8 dB respectively. Statistically, there was a significant difference in postoperative changes in AC (p value = 0.011) and BC (p value = 0.009) between the two groups. There was no significant difference in post-operative changes in Air-Bone Gap (p value = 0.571). Topical Estrogen (Estradiol valerate) solution is cost-effective, with enriched growth factors that accelerate tympanic membrane perforation closure following myringoplasty and resulted in significant improvement in hearing thresholds both for Air Conduction and Bone Conduction.