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Is tympanic infrared thermometry valid in non-naive tympanic membranes?

  • Otology
  • Published:
European Archives of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

To investigate the impact of with tympanostomy tubes (TT) on infrared tympanic membrane thermometer (ITMT) results and to provide a systematic review of ITMT results in non-naïve tympanic membranes.

Study design

Original prospective blinded case series and systematic literature review.

Settings

A single tertiary university-affiliated medical center.

Methods

ITMT measurements of patients with unilateral TT and contralateral naïve control ear were randomly conducted by a single investigator blinded to the TT side before and after cerumen was removed from the external auditory canals. A systematic literature search of “MEDLINE” via “PubMed,” “Embase,” and “Google Scholar” on comparable published cases was performed.

Results

The mean paired differences (95% confidence interval [CI]) between ventilated and non-ventilated ears before and after cerumen removal were 0.08 ºC/0.14 ºF (−0.04 to 0.19 ºC/− 0.07º–0.34º) and 0.62 ºC/1.12 ºF (0.04–0.25 ºC/0.07–0.45 ºF), respectively (P < 0.001 and P = 0.01, respectively).

Conclusion

These findings support the validity and accuracy of ITMT in the setting of ventilated ears.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and Maxillofacial Surgery, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Affiliated to the Sackler School of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, 6 Weizman Street, 6423906, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Udi Shapira, Ophir Handzel, Nidal Muhanna, Yahav Oron, Rani Abu Eta, Gilad Horowitz, Anton Warshavsky & Omer J. Ungar

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  1. Udi Shapira
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  2. Ophir Handzel
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  3. Nidal Muhanna
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  4. Yahav Oron
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  5. Rani Abu Eta
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  6. Gilad Horowitz
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  8. Omer J. Ungar
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Contributions

US: data collection and analysis, manuscript writing; OH: data collection; NM: Literature review; YO: manuscript design; RAE: manuscript writing; GH: critical revision; AW: Critical revision; OJU: data collection and analysis, manuscript writing and systematic literature review.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Omer J. Ungar.

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Conflict of interest

The authors have no financial conflicts of interest relevant to this article to disclose.

Ethical consideration

This study was approved by the Tel Aviv "Sourasky" Medical Center review board (0470–21-TLV).

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Shapira, U., Handzel, O., Muhanna, N. et al. Is tympanic infrared thermometry valid in non-naive tympanic membranes?. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 280, 549–556 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07488-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-022-07488-3

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