Table I.

Characteristics of SSI patients. Eleven patients were diagnosed with SSI during the follow-up. (CWU: Canal Wall Up, CWD: Canal Wall Down, Scar infl.: scar inflammation, Purulent otor.: purulent otorrhoea, Atb: antibiotic therapy, Hosp.: hospitalisation).

	Early SSI				Late SSI
Case number	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Age (y)	53	39	59	16	48	31	23	68	12	17	40
Sex	F	M	M	M	M	F	F	F	M	M	M
Otorrhoea during the previous 6 months	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes
Pre-operative antibiotic therapy	No	Local	Oral, Local	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Pre-operative ear examination	Wet	Wet	Wet	Dry	Wet	Dry	Dry	Dry	Dry	Dry	Wet
Cholesteatoma	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Drilling	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
Technique	CWU	CWU	CWD	CWU	CWU	CWU	CWU	CWD	CWU	CWU	CWD
Autologous graft	Cartilage	Cartilage, fascia, bone	Cartilage	No	Fascia	Cartilage, fascia	Cartilage, fascia, bone	Cartilage	Cartilage, fascia	Cartilage	Cartilage, fascia
Foreign material	No	No	Fibrin Glue	No	Gelatine Sponge	Gelatine Sponge	No	Fibrin Glue	No	No	Fibrin Glue
Resorbable suture	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No
Intravenous intraoperative antibiotic administration	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
Oral postoperative antibiotic administration	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
NNIS score a	2	2	2	1	1	0	1	1	1	1	2
Clinical examination at SSI diagnosis	Scar infl., purulent otor.	Scar infl.	Purulent otor.	Purulent otor.	Purulent otor.	Purulent otor.	Purulent otor.	Purulent otor.	Pain, purulent otitis media	Purulent otor.	Pain, purulent otor.
Time to SSI diagnosis after surgery (days)	3	7	11	30	90	100	116	122	150	157	160
Treatment of SSI	Atb, hosp., surgery	Atb, hosp.	Atb	Atb	Atb	Atb	Atb	Atb	Atb	Atb	Atb

^aNNIS score: one point given for each of the following criteria: ASA score of 3-5, contaminated or dirty-infected surgery and surgery lasting longer than 60 minutes.