Abstract:Objective Secretory otitis media (SOM) is one of the most common complications in patients with nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) after radiotherapy. Both auripuncture and grommet insertion are promising operation techniques to treat postirradiation SOM. However, it is still controversial that which therapy is more beneficial. This metaanalysis was undertaken to compare curative effect between auripuncture and grommet insertion for postirradiation SOM and to provide suggestion for clinical treatment choice. To make this analysis, Pubmed, Embase, CBM, CNKI and CSTJ were searched by March 2011 for relative clinical trials; STATA 9.2 was used for conducting the statistical analysis. Finally, 5 trials with 352 patients and 484 ears were included. The results of the metaanalysis showed that there was no significant difference in the effective rate between the two therapies ［RR=1.02, 95%CI（0.78, 1.32）］, yet grommet insertion has higher complication rate ［RR=0.25, 95%CI（0.14，0.44）］. According to the results, auripuncture and grommet insertion are similar in therapeutic effect for SOM after radiotherapy in patients with NPC. However, grommet insertion has higher risk of complications. Results Indicate that, for the first treated patients, it is more reasonable to choose the treatment of auripuncture for its relatively less incidence rate of complication.
