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.