OBJECTIVE: To compare the postoperative complications (narrowing of the enlarged canal and perichondritis) of a meatoplasty without conchal cartillage removal and more raw skin area (modified meatoplasty) versus a meatoplasty with conchal cartilage removal and less raw skin area (Z meatoplasty) including other sequelae (hyperemia, formation of granulation tissue and discharge from the cavity) which may lead to complications in canal wall down post-auricular mastoidectomy.

METHODS:
Design: Concealed, randomized controlled clinical trial
Setting: Tertiary Public Hospital
Patients: Twenty-one ears of 19 patients with chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) undergoing postauricular open mastoidectomy (radical or modified radical mastoidectomy) between February to July 2009 were randomly assigned to undergo modified meatoplasty (Group A: n=11) and Z meatoplasty (Group B: n=10). Main outcome measures were posoperative rates of meatoplasty complications and mastoidectomy sequelae that may lead to complications on weeks 1,2 and 4.

RESULTS: On the first postoperative week, the Z meastoplasty was associated with a higher incidence of hyperemia at the incision site (A:36.4%, B:90% (p
Human ; Male ; Female ; Middle Aged ; Adult ; Young Adult ; Adolescent ; Mastoid ; Ear Canal ; Postoperative Complications ; Hyperemia