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.