Brown C, et al. - In this retrospective chart review, researchers assessed and compared the rates of persistent tympanic membrane (TM) perforations between short-term vs long-term tympanostomy tubes, as well as identified which demographic, anatomical, and physical factors influence ear drum healing after tympanostomy tube (TT) removal and simultaneous paper patch myringoplasty (PPM) in children. Three hundred forty-three ear drums have been analyzed that had tympanostomy tube removal and paper patch myringoplasty. Overall, after surgical removal of the TT and PPM, an 87% perforation closure rate was observed. In patients with long-term tubes, persistent perforations occurred significantly more often than in short-term tubes. Findings also suggest that after tympanostomy tube placement and removal, several patients (ie, age at the time of tube removal and the number of tubes that patient received) and ear drum characteristics (ie, size of ear drum perforation, and presence of tympanosclerosis) can be significant factors that contribute to persistent perforation. No significant factors were found to be intubation length, ear drum atrophy, retraction, granulation tissue, middle ear effusion and thickened ear drum.