Objectives: We evaluated the efficacy of CO2 laser myringotomy combined with adenoidectomy in children with serous otitis media (SOM) unresponsive to medical therapy and compared the recurrences in the follow-up period with the control group who underwent adenoidectomy and ventilation tube (VT) insertion.
Patients and methods: The CO2 laser myringotomy group included 25 children with a mean age of 5.6 years and there were 10 children with a mean age of 6.3 years in the VT control group. The laser used was a Sharplan 1030 CO2 laser, attached to Zeiss Universal S3 operation microscope with a 300 mm objective, using a Microspot optical delivery system.
Results: The mean (+/-SD) healing time was 13 (+/-2.16) days in 4 ears with myringotomies less than 2 mm in diameter, and 25 (+/-2.34) days in 46 ears with myringotomies with 2 mm in diameter. During the 6-month follow-up period, there were 11 recurrences (22%) in the CO2 laser group and 4 recurrences (20%) in the control group, which was not statistically significant (p>0.05).
Conclusion: We prefer laser myringotomy in SOM cases who do not need long-time middle ear ventilation; we use the ventilation tubes in cases with thick mucoid effusion and recurrent effusion after laser myringotomy.