RESULTS

Clinical characteristics

Patients were aged between 10 and 81 years with the mean age of 51.5 years, and there was no statistically significant difference in age (p =0.480) and sex ratio (p =0.514) between the two groups. The operation site was on the right in 25 patients (43.9%) and on the left in 32 patients (56.1%). The right side was more common in GPG, while the left side was more common in NGPG, thereby demonstrating a statistically significant difference (p =0.041).
The locations of perforation in the TMalso showed no significant difference between the two groups(p =0.725) and the mean preoperative perforation size of TM was 29.5% in GPG and 32.2% in NGPG(p =0.702). The clinical characteristics of the enrolled patients of the two groups are presented and compared in Table 1.

Physical Evaluations

There was no difference in the graft success rate between GPG and NGPG, since all the patients showed successful graft uptake at postoperative 3 month evaluation(Figure 1).During the follow-up period, none of the patients of this study developed postoperative otorrhea, lateralization of neodrum, anterior wall blunting, facial palsy, profound hearing loss or other problems.
However, NGPG showed the statistically significant faster healing process compared to GPG. The higher neodrum epithelization percent was observed in NPG during the follow up period, with significant differences in postoperative 1-month(68.00±16.48% in GPG and 76.30±13.34% in NGPG, p =0.043) and 2-month evaluation(94.67±6.87% in GPG and 99.26±2.67% in NGPG,p =0.007). Also,neodrum edemascorewas significantly lower in NGPG at 1-month(1.23±0.91 in GPG 0.74±0.62 in NGPG,p =0.044) and 2-month(0.19±0.40 in GPG and 0.04±0.21 in NGPG,p =0.085)evaluations. Complete epithelization and amd loss of edema were observed in both groups at the 3-month visit. (Figure 2)

Audiologic Evaluations

A comparison of the preoperative and final hearing measured at postoperative3 months between GPG and NGPG did not show any differences (p >0.05). Although there were no statistical differences, the ABG measured at1-month (24.94±11.38dB in GPG and 20.90±9.99dB in NGPG, p =0.161) and 2-months (22.36±14.37dB in GPG and 15.80±11.43 in NGPG, p =0.144) after surgery was smaller in NGPG than in GPG, thereby indicating an earlier hearing recovery in NGPG compared with GPG (Figure3).