Description

Myringoplasties and ossicular surgery are very common procedures. Following these otological surgeries, most surgeons install a wicking. This intervention consists of placing a wick, absorbable or not, in the external acoustic meatus, after having replaced the tympanomeatal flap.

Putting in place a wicking often requires to remove this wicking, feared by the patient. In addition, wicking leads to obstruction of the external acoustic meatus responsible for functional discomfort (feeling of fullness in the ear, pain, significant conductive deafness) which can last from one to several weeks depending on the type of wicking.

Despite these drawbacks, the rationale for wicking has never been established, the choice of wick type is often empirical, and its necessity is sometimes controversial in the literature. Recent studies have studied the absence of wicking as an alternative to overcome its many drawbacks. No prospective, randomized, multicenter study has been performed to show the superiority of wicking in healing following middle ear surgery (myringoplasty, stapedo-vestibular ankylosis, ossiculoplasty) via the duct or the endaural route. The only study with a high level of evidence concerns only endoscopic surgery. This study has the advantage of showing that with comparable audiometric and healing results, the absence of wicking allows a reduced operating time, an earlier reduction in otorrhea and the feeling of blocked ears, and an earlier improvement of hearing. Given this work in the literature, our hypothesis is that tympanic healing is not impaired in the absence of wicking.