The contralateral ear in chronic otitis media: a series of 500 patients.

Objective To study the contralateral ear of patients with chronic otitis media (COM). Design Transversal. Setting Tertiary referral center. Patients A total of 500 consecutive patients who had been diagnosed as having COM with or without cholesteatoma. Interventions Digital otoendoscopy was performed on both ears. Main Outcome Measure Pathologic alterations in the contralateral ear. Results In 75.2% of the patients, the contralateral ear was found to have some structural abnormalities; 60.4% of the patients presented with COM without cholesteatoma, and in this group, 69.9% had an abnormal contralateral ear. In those with cholesteatoma, the contralateral ear was found to be abnormal in 83.3%. The most frequent finding in both groups was retraction of the tympanic membrane. Conclusions Patients with COM in 1 ear have a high chance of presenting with some degree of disease in the contralateral side. We believe that our findings suggest that COM should be ideally approached not as a static pathological incident affecting 1 ear but rather as an on-going process that may affect both ears.