Revision Stapes Surgery: Hearing Symptoms and Associations With Intraoperative Findings and Outcomes

Stapes surgery for otosclerosis occasionally requires revision due to recurrent or persistent conductive hearing loss (CHL). This study examines outcomes after revision stapes surgery.

Retrospective review.

Single tertiary neurotology center.

Patients undergoing revision stapes surgery for otosclerosis from 2008 to 2017 were reviewed. Postoperative air-bone gaps (ABGs) were the primary outcome measure.

During the study period, 150 patients underwent revision stapes surgery. One hundred patients (67%) had gradually progressive recurrent CHL; 16 (11%), sudden recurrent CHL; 13 (9%), persistent CHL; and 21 (14%), no CHL. For 129 patients with CHL, the mean ABG improved from 23.7 to 9.3 dB (P < .0005). The most common intraoperative findings for these patients were prosthesis displacement with incus necrosis (38%) or without it (43%), normal anatomy with seemingly good prosthesis placement (6%), and abundant scar tissue (6%). Patients with recurrent hearing loss achieved lower mean ABGs than patients with persistent hearing loss (8.8 vs 13.2 dB, P = .02). There were no associations between onset pattern of CHL or intraoperative findings and hearing outcomes (P > .05). Four patients (2.7%) developed sensorineural hearing loss after revision, defined as an increase in bone conduction pure tone average ≥15 dB, all of whom had previous replacement of a malpositioned prosthesis.

Revision stapes surgery confers significant improvement in hearing for patients with persistent and recurrent CHL, although patients with persistent CHL after initial surgery see less improvement with revision.