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Does labyrinthectomy have an impact on hearing in the contralateral ear during long-term follow-up?
Kavan C Babu1, Christian G Fritz2, Jonathan S Choi1
1Michigan Ear Institute, Farmington Hills, MI, USA.
Objective:
To quantify contralateral hearing outcomes after labyrinthectomy for unilateral Ménière's disease (MD).
Study Design:
Retrospective case series.
Setting:
Tertiary neurotology referral center.
Patients:
Labyrinth removal for the management of MD or translabyrinthine (TLAB) acoustic neuroma resection between 2008 and 2012.
Main Outcome Measure:
Long-term hearing changes via pure tone averages (PTA).
Results:
Upon comparison of low-frequency PTA (250, 500, 1000 Hz), MD patients experienced a greater degree of hearing loss during the follow-up period when compared to the TLAB lab group (7.54 ± 2.11 dB vs 2.39 ± 1.10 dB, p = 0.035). This difference as attributable to 12 (28.6 %) MD patients experiencing a ≥30 dB increase in low-frequency PTA, whereas none (0.0 %) of the TLAB surpassed this threshold.
Conclusions:
At 10 years post-labyrinthectomy there is a heightened risk for MD patients to develop low-frequency sensorineural hearing loss. Clinicians should monitor for audiometric changes through regular testing in the decade following labyrinth removal.
