Surgery for chronic suppurative otitis media performed in low- and middle-income countries creates specific challenges. This paper describes the equipment and a variety of techniques that we find best suited to these conditions. These have been used over many years in remote areas of Nepal.

Extensive chronic suppurative otitis media is frequently encountered, with limited pre-operative investigation or treatment possible. Techniques learnt in better-resourced settings with good follow up need to be modified. The paper describes surgical methods suitable for resource-poor conditions, with rationales. These include methods of tympanoplasty for subtotal wet perforations, hearing reconstruction in wet ears and open cavities, large aural polyps, and canal wall down mastoidectomy with cavity obliteration. Various types of autologous ossiculoplasty are described in detail for use in the absence of prostheses. The following topics are discussed: decision-making for surgery on wet or best hearing ears, children, bilateral surgery, working with local anaesthesia, and obtaining adequate consent in this environment.

To develop an autologous total ossicular replacement prosthesis with sustainable hearing results.

The ears of 40 patients, who had chronic otitis media with absent suprastructure of the stapes and long process of the incus, were repaired using the autologous total ossicular replacement technique. Post-operative results were evaluated after 6 and 12 months on the basis of average pure tone air conduction and average air–bone gap measured at 0.5, 1, 2 and 3 kHz.

Successful rehabilitation of pure tone average to 30 dB or less was achieved in 75 per cent of patients, and air–bone gap to 20 dB or less was attained in 82.5 per cent of patients. Overall mean improvement in air–bone gap was 23.9 ± 8.5 dB (p < 0.001). Mean improvements in air–bone gap were significantly greater (p < 0.05) in the tympanoplasty only group (27.3 ± 6.6 dB) and the intact canal wall tympanoplasty group (25.9 ± 6.3 dB) than in the canal wall down tympanoplasty group (16.3 ± 8.9 dB).

This paper describes an autologous total ossicular replacement prosthesis that is biocompatible, stable, magnetic resonance imaging compatible and, above all, results in sustainable hearing improvement.