Hearing Outcome in Stapes Surgery Using Various Biomaterial Prostheses

Abstract

Aims: To assess the hearing outcome in patients who have undergone stapes surgery using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and Titanium prosthesis at 1 and 3 months post operatively. Material & Methods: Research design: Prospective study. Setting: ENT department, Pushpagiri Medical College. Study population: All age groups with clinical diagnosis of otosclerosis and air-bone gap more than 15 dB irrespective of sex difference. Patients with Meniere's disease are excluded. Method: A prospective study was conducted for a period of one and a half years from January 2014 to July 2015 to find out the hearing outcome of stapes surgery in patients with otosclerosis using polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and Titanium prostheses, attending our outpatient department. Results: In this study, 84.21% of ears with polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) and 81.81% of ears with titanium were able to achieve good results in terms of Air-Bone gap (ABG) closure (ABG < 20 dB). The average post op hearing following stapes surgery at 3 months improved to near normal levels of 34.12 dB ± 8.95 with an average hearing gain of 19.19 dB with PTFE prosthesis and 30.86 dB ± 5.47 with an average hearing gain of 21.2 dB with titanium which were significant. Conclusion: Stapes surgery is the surgical procedure of choice for otosclerosis. In our study, a significant hearing improvement was seen in majority of cases. None of the factors considered relevant for the success of stapes surgery like age, sex, type of prosthesis appeared to affect the post-operative hearing significantly. Hence stapes surgery can be effectively used to improve hearing in otosclerosis.

Hearing Outcome of Stapes Surgery in NIENT, Bangladesh

“…21,23,25 This study shows the average gain was 15.40±8.53 dB. Therefore, the findings of the study are in well agreement with the findings of the other research works 16,26 . They found the average gain in air conduction was 27 dB and majority had air conduction gain in the group of 31-40 dB.…”

“…This was similar to the study of Vishwakarma et al where the mean postoperative ABG was 8.2 dB respectively. 26 The air-bone gap with titanium in the study of Boleas-Aguirre et al 24 In this study shows 77.8% patients had tinnitus. These findings are in accordance with the literature, where tinnitus is described in 40-90% of the cases before surgery and some beneficial effects of the surgery were noted.…”