Acute traumatic tympanic membrane perforations. Cover or observe?

The influence of a paper prosthesis on healing in acute traumatic tympanic membrane perforations was studied in 60 patients randomly selected for a treatment group or a control group. The majority (42 [70%] ) were seen within two days. All patients were treated with oral antibiotics for ten days. The overall healing rate two months after the trauma was 94% (37 of 39 patients). No significant difference between the study group and the control patients was observed. Intermittent secretion was seen in six patients but did not influence the outcome. The perforations occurred in patients with normally sized mastoid air cell systems as seen on roentgenograms. We conclude that acute traumatic tympanic membrane perforations do not need to be treated routinely with paper patching.