Tympanic Membrane Perforation among Patients Presenting to Department of Otorhinolaryngology of a Tertiary Care Hospital: A Descriptive Cross-sectional Study

Introduction: Intact tympanic membrane acts as a partition between the external ear and middle ear. Tympanic membrane perforation is one of the commonest causes of conductive hearing loss. Perforation size is the most important determination of hearing loss. The aim of this study was to find out the prevalence of tympanic membrane perforation among patients presenting to the otorhinolaryngology department of a tertiary care hospital. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head Neck Surgery of a tertiary care hospital from March 2021 to August 2021. Ethical approval was taken from Institutional Review Committee (Reference number: 57112021). Convenience sampling was done and data was collected from 414 patients presenting to the department. Collected data were entered, analyzed in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 21.0 and documented for study. Point estimate at 95% Confidence Interval was calculated along with frequency and percentage for binary data. Results: Among 414 patients, tympanic membrane perforation was seen in 100 (24.15%) (20.02-28.27 at 95% Confidence Interval). Among 100 patients with a total of 153 perforated eardrums, mild hearing loss was seen in the majority of the cases. Posterior perforation had a mean hearing loss of 40.41 +/- 5.96 dB, central had 39.09 +/- 3.13 dB, and anterior had 35.15 +/- 5.88 dB. Conclusions: Our study showed the prevalence of tympanic membrane perforation to be high when compared to other similar studies. Hearing loss was observed in all cases; the majority with mild hearing loss. The degree of hearing loss was more in larger and posterior perforation.