An observation of long term effect of one-stage hearing reconstruction on tympanosclerosis

Abstract

Objective:To observe the long-term hearing stability of patients with tympanosclerosis after one-stage hearing reconstruction. Method:Forty-one patients with tympanosclerosis were included in the study. Their puretone thresholds before operation and those at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 to 5 years after operation were retrospectively analyzed. Differences between pre-and postoperative air-bone gaps（ABG） for speech frequencies（0.5, 1, 2, 4 kHz） as well as those of averaged ABG were calculated. Result:Preoperative averaged ABG of 44 ears was （36.0±10.4） dB. Averaged ABG at 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 to 5 years after operation were （24.1±8.8） dB, （24.5±9.8） dB, （22.4±11.3） dB and （22.5±4.1） dB respectively. Averaged ABG at different time after operation were all significantly less than preoperative results but didn't differ between each other. Postoperative ABG for different frequencies varied between 9.3 and 33.7 dB. They were significantly less than preoperative results, but didn't differ between the four frequencies. At different time after operation, averaged ABG of type Ⅰ were always significantly less than those of type Ⅱ, while the latter were always significantly less than those of type Ⅳ. Differences between preoperative ABG and ABG at different postoperative time were not significantly different. Neither were differences between pre-and postoperative ABG for different frequencies. Conclusion:Hearing reconstruction has the same effect on hearing improvement of patients with tympanosclerosis at different frequencies. Type Ⅰ patients has the best hearing results while type Ⅳ patients has the worst. There is no significant difference between the long-term（1 year and more than 2 years after operation） and the short-term（3 months and 6 months after operation） hearing level. Hearing level of patients with tympanosclerosis remain stable in a long time after operation.