3.2 Middle Ear Pressures
Tympanometry data considered each ear independently. A total of 24
middle ear pressures were measured preoperatively. Sixteen ears had
abnormal middle ear pressures before surgery. Patients in the case group
were found to have mean pressures of -64.2 and -77.0 daPa in the left
and right ears respectively before surgery compared to 5.43 and 0.29
daPa in the controls (Table 1 ). The case group experienced a
mean increase in pressures in the immediate postoperative period (Δ
left: 49.5, Δ right: 36.5); however, this change was not significant
(p>0.05). Overall no significant difference was observed
between groups for all middle ear pressure variables pre- and
postoperatively.
We further explored the pressure change in patients with pain
ipsilateral to the deviation or septal spur (n=4). Two patients had both
a deviation and spur on the same side of pain. One patient had
ipsilateral pain to a spur, but contralateral to deviation, and another
had the deviation and pain contralateral to the spur. For ipsilateral
pain and deviation, the mean change was -74.7 daPa on the pain side and
-51.0 daPa for the side without pain. For cases that involved
ipsilateral spur pain, the pressures changed on the affected and
unaffected side -62.33 and -57.5 daPa respectively.