[The state of microcirculation in the middle ear structures at different stages of the treatment of the patients presenting with chronic otitis media].

The present work was designed to study dynamics of blood circulation in the tympanic membrane and tympanic cavity mucosa of 92 patients (105 ears) presenting with otosclerosis, adhesive non-perforative otitis media, and different stages of chronic suppurative otitis media. Normal characteristics of tympanic microcirculation were determined in 22 otologically healthy volunteers (30 ears). Laser Doppler flowmetry with the use of a specially designed probe (the outer diameter: 1.9 mm) was applied. The results of Doppler flowmetry varied in ontologically healthy subjects. The same circulation parameters in the vessels of the microcirculatory bed of the postero-superior quadrant of the tympanic membrane in the patients presenting with chronic suppurative otitis media at the stage of remission, otosclerosis, and adhesive non-perforative otitis media did not significantly differ from those of otologically healthy subjects. The blood flow was shown to increase in the tympanic membrane of the majority of the patients during the postoperative period (within 2nd to 4th weeks after types I-III tympanoplasty); thereafter, it either decreased or returned to the baseline level by weeks 6-8. Four months after the improvement of perfusion parameters of tympanic cavity mucosa and the arrest of exacerbation of mesotympanitis, characteristics of microcirculation in tympanic cavity mucosa were not significantly different from those of the patients with adhesive perforative otitis media. It is concluded that laser Doppler flowmetry may be used as an objective non-invasive technique for the study of microcirculation in the tympanic membrane and tympanic cavity mucosa.