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Cholesteatoma: Influence of surgical technique and EAONO/JOS stage on audiological results
Josefa Olmedo Martínez1, Francisco Ropero Romero1, Serafín Sánchez Gómez1
1Hospital Universitario Virgen Macarena, Sevilla, Spain.
Introduction And Objective:
The treatment of cholesteatoma is surgical in most cases. When it is indicated, it is preferable to choose a reconstructive surgical technique with the dual purpose of eradicating the disease and preserving or improving the patient's hearing. In 2017, the European Academy of Otology and Neuro-Otology/Japanese Otological Society (EAONO/JOS) published a new cholesteatoma classification. The aims of this study were to determine the influence of the surgical technique used and this classification on patient's hearing outcomes.
Methods:
A retrospective study that included patients who underwent reconstructive surgery of cholesteatoma between 2012 and 2017 was carried out. Based on pre-surgical computed tomography (CT) images, disease was staged according to the EAONO/JOS classification. Hearing outcomes obtained by pre and postoperative pure tone audiometry were analysed according to the surgical technique used and according to the stage of the disease.
Results:
143 patients with no statistically significant differences in hearing thresholds before surgery were included. One year after surgery, all the patients' (P = .01 and P = .001) airpure tone average (PTA) and mean differential auditory threshold had improved significantly. Those patients who underwent tympanoplasty with two-stage canal wall up mastoidectomy presented better postsurgical air PTA and postsurgical mean differential auditory threshold outcomes (P = .007 and P = .014) than those patients who underwent tympanoplasty with canal wall down mastoidectomy. Moreover, the patients who underwent tympanoplasty with two-stage canal wall up mastoidectomy had improved air PTA and mean differential auditory threshold one year after the surgery with statistical significance (P = .001, P = .013). The mean differential auditory threshold was also better (P = .008) in the patients who underwent tympanoplasty with canal wall down mastoidectomy one year after the procedure.
Conclusions:
Reconstructive surgical techniques improve hearing one year after surgery. In our study, this improvement was significantly greater with tympanoplasty with two-stage canal wall up mastoidectomy.

