More than 70% of revision stapedectomy cases for hearing improvement have had successful closure of their air-bone gap. Since the introduction of the laser 5 years ago, the success rate has increased to 80%. In those specific cases where the laser was required, the success rate increased to 91.4%. Regardless of the revision technique, hearing results were the least successful when the incus could not be used for reconstruction.

Studies have indicated that stapedectomy can be an effective procedure in children for correcting conductive hearing losses due to juvenile otosclerosis. However, because childhood otosclerosis is rare and children commonly choose to use hearing aids in lieu of undergoing surgery, little outcome data are available. The purpose of this retrospective study was to provide additional outcome data in both the short and the long term. Stapedectomies were performed on 47 children. Preoperative hearing results were compared with 6-month postoperative hearing results. Hearing results for the children who had long-term follow-up (5 years or more) were compared with the 6-month postoperative results. Stapedectomy was successful (postoperative air conduction pure-tone average [PTA] within 10 dB of the preoperative bone conduction PTA) in 91.7% of the cases. The mean overclosure of the preoperative bone conduction PTA by the postoperative air conduction PTA was 0.2 dB. The mean PTA hearing improvement was 32.8 dB. Results from the 21 children (28 ears) who had long-term follow-up indicated an average 0.7 dB/year PTA worsening from the 6-month postoperative PTA. Results from this study provide additional evidence that stapedectomy can be an effective procedure for correcting conductive hearing losses due to juvenile otosclerosis.

No abstract

We have recently begun using the titanium TOP, which has resulted in improved postoperative hearing when compared with the porous polyethylene TOP. In the future, longer follow-up and increased patient numbers will strengthen our conclusions.

We found no adverse effect on hearing in otosclerotic women who had children compared with women without children. Even with increasing numbers of pregnancies, no deleterious impact was noted. Air conduction, bone conduction, and discrimination were not worse in women with children versus childless women. No significant correlation was found between the number of children and hearing loss, and neither did breastfeeding affect the amount of hearing loss.