Methods of stapes surgery for otosclerosis.

Abstract

Stapes surgery today requires the utmost resourcefulness and discrimination in the selection of the technique most appropriate in each case. In 1952, I mobilized the rigid stapes in a case of otosclerotic deafness by exerting pressure upon the neck of the stapes. For a period of time this indirect mobilization of the footplate was the sole technique employed in surgery of the stapes to improve hearing. Good results with this technique occurred in approximately one-third of the cases.^1-10Some of the unimproved cases were then reoperated on and resulted in significantly improved hearing, while others became candidates for the fenestra novovalis operation. The necessity for increasing the percentage of favorable results led me to a direct mobilization of the footplate at the footplate itself in those cases where the indirect method did not succeed. A needle, or explorer, was inserted at various points around the periphery of the footplate