Efficacy and Safety of Balloon Dilatation of the Eustachian Tube in Children With Eustachian Tube Dysfunction: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The meta-analysis and systematic review evaluated the efficacy and safety of balloon dilatation of the eustachian tube (BDET) in children with eustachian tube dysfunction. The PubMed, Cochrane Library, and ScienceDirect databases were searched in depth to identify relevant studies, and eight retrospective cohort studies were selected. A total of 652 patients were included in these studies. There were no serious complications, and only minor, self-limiting adverse events were seen, the most common of which were epistaxis and a patulous eustachian tube. The primary result was an improvement in the type of tympanogram, and the secondary results were the risk of failure and complications. The pooled analysis of seven studies showed that 64% (95%CI: 50-78%) of cases demonstrated improvement in tympanogram following BDET. However, heterogeneity was high (I² = 90.7%). The pooled failure rate, based on four studies, was 13% (95%CI: 1-17%). Although the evidence on the efficacy and safety of BDET in pediatric patients is encouraging, the overall quality of evidence is limited by the retrospective nature of the included studies, the absence of control groups, and inconsistent outcome measures. These results indicate that BDET may be a useful, minimally invasive procedure for treating eustachian tube dysfunction in children. However, more specific randomized controlled trials with standardized outcome measures are needed to clarify the treatment's long-term effectiveness and its role in clinical practice.