RESUMEN
OBJECTIVE: To perform a five-year study of hearing evolution in patients undergoing myringoplasty to determine whether eardrum repair correlates with improved hearing. We also studied factors that might predispose to failure and their usefulness as prognostic factors. MATERIAL AND METHOD: In a serial case study, we reviewed all myringoplasties performed at our centre during 2000, 2001, and 2002. We reviewed 83 case histories and studied the closure of the perforation, auditory function pre-operatively, postoperatively and after 5 years, as well as different associated factors. RESULTS: The perforation was closed in 75.9 % of cases. The mean gain of auditory function was 1.5 dB at five years, without statistical significance. The hearing evolution presented a post-surgical improvement and a subsequent deterioration, both statistically significant. We found a statistically significant relationship between the size of the perforation and the condition of the contralateral ear. CONCLUSIONS: Perforation closure in our series (75.9 %) is similar to that reported in the literature. We found contralateral ear pathology and the perforation extension to be associated with poor prognosis after myringoplasty.