Improvement in Hearing and Incidence of Complications Following Three Types of Stapes Surgery

Abstract

We reviewed the records of 80 patients who had undergone stapes surgery over the past 10 years and who had been followed for more than 6 months at Nagoya University Hospital. They were divided into three groups: those who received total stapedectomy using a wire loop (29), those who received a large fenestra stapedotomy using a 0.6 mm Teflon wire piston (39), and those who received a small fenestra stapedotomy using a 0.3 mm Teflon piston (12). The decline in the air conduction threshold and closure of the air-bone (A-B) gap were used as indices of postoperative improvement in hearing. The postoperative elevation of bone conduction threshold at 4 and 8 kHz was used as an index of inner ear damage caused by the surgery. The postoperative hearing improvement at four speech frequencies between the three types of stapes surgery did not differ significantly. At 4 and 8 kHz, postoperative bone conduction was elevated significantly in the patients who received total stapedectomy as compared with those who underwent a large or small fenestra stapedotomy.