Table 1.

Patient characteristics and summarized data of the included studies.

Year/author	Country	Design of the study	Otologic condition	No.	Age (mean ± SD) (yr)	Temperature (mean ± SD) (celsius)	P value
2022 Kim	South Korea	Data (A) Comparison of bilateral eardrum temperatures: chronic otitis media on one side (with cholesteatoma) and normal eardrum on the contralateral side in the same subjects (only published data) Temperature measurement time: the day before surgery.	1. CSOM with tympanic membrane perforation 2. Chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma	192	55.4 ± 11.31 (range: 22–79)	Experimental 37.09 ± 0.325	<.05
						Control 37.03 ± 0.330
		Data (B) Comparison of bilateral eardrum temperatures: chronic otitis media with perforation on one side (without cholesteatoma) and normal eardrum on the contralateral side (including unpublished data) Temperature measurement time: the day before surgery.	CSOM with tympanic membrane perforation but without cholesteatoma	145	55.8 ± 11.72 (range: 22–79)	Experimental 37.08 ± 0.326	<.05
						Control 37.02 ± 0.334
2021 Cengiz	Turkey	Comparison of the bilateral eardrum temperatures: perforated eardrum on one side and normal eardrum on the other side in the same subject.	Monaural dry perforation without drainage for the preceding 3 months and normal middle ear mucosa in patients with chronic otitis media	30	45.3 (range: 18–65) (SD: unknown)	Experimental 36.87 ± 0.51	≥.05
						Control 36.84 ± 0.51
2018 Tasli	Turkey	Same as above	Monaural central perforation of the tympanic membrane without signs of infection	90	30.74 ± 9.61 (range: 20–58)	Experimental 36.34 ± 0.61	≥.05
						Control 36.33 ± 0.60
2006 Schmal	Germany	Same as above	Same as above	31	40.0 ± 14.0 (range: unknown) (subject: adult patients)	Experimental 36.39 ± 0.28	≥.05
						Control 36.34 ± 0.24

Author = the first author of each paper. CSOM: chronic suppurative otitis media. No.: number of subjects. Year: the publication year of each paper.