Mastoid Obliteration Decreases the Recurrent and Residual Disease: Systematic Review and Meta-analysis

Objective Our study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of mastoid obliteration compared to the canal wall up (CWU) technique in cholesteatoma surgery based on the systematic review of the literature and the meta-analysis of the data. Methods The systematic search was performed in four major databases (MEDLINE, Web of Science, Embase, and CENTRAL) on October 14, 2021. Studies comparing the CWU technique and mastoid obliteration were included. The exclusion criteria were less than 12 months follow-up, congenital cholesteatoma, indefinite description of the surgical method, and animal studies. The protocol was registered on Prospero (registration number: CRD42021282485). The risk of bias was evaluated with the ROBINS-I tool. Residual and recurrent disease proportions as primary outcomes, quality of life, ear discharge, infection rates, hearing results, and operation time as secondary outcomes were analyzed. In the quantitative synthesis, the random effect model was used, and heterogeneity was identified. Results A total of 11 articles with 2077 operations' data were found eligible. All the identified studies were retrospective cohorts. The odds of pooled residual and recurrent disease proportion were significantly lower in the obliteration group compared to CWU (OR = 0.45, CI:0.28;0.80, p = 0.014). However, when separated, the proportion of ears with recurrent (OR = 0.41, CI:0.11;1.57, p = 0.140) or residual (OR = 0.59, CI:0.23, 1.50, p = 0.207) disease did not show a significant difference, even though the odds were quite similar. The qualitative synthesis identified no significant difference in the secondary outcomes, but obliteration elongated the operation time. Conclusion Mastoid obliteration significantly decreased the proportion of residual and recurrent cholesteatoma in pooled analyses compared to the CWU technique with low-quality of data. Level of Evidence NA Laryngoscope, 2022

Automated summary

This study evaluated the effectiveness of mastoid obliteration compared to the canal wall up (CWU) technique in cholesteatoma surgery through a systematic review and meta-analysis. The results showed that mastoid obliteration significantly reduced the proportion of residual and recurrent cholesteatoma, although the quality of the data was low.