Bone Conduction after Stapes Surgery in Otosclerotic Patients with Mixed Hearing Loss: Fact or Fiction?

The aim of the study is to investigate the effect of stapes surgery on bone conduction (BC) in otosclerotic patients with mixed hearing loss. We retrospectively reviewed surgical database of 52 otosclerotic patients with mixed hearing loss. The guidelines of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery for the evaluation of results of treatment of conductive hearing loss were used. Post-op 5-PTA BC thresholds showed a statistically significant improvement [Pre-op: 29.1 dB (10.5); Post-op: 22.1 dB (10.7); p< 0.05], confirmed by a mean gain of 6.9 dB in each BC frequencies. Our result suggests that selected otosclerotic patients with mixed hearing loss and small air-bone gap could be benefit from stapes surgery, restoring hearing and to stem BC impairment and otosclerotic progression.