Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence in the General Population With Otosclerosis: A Meta-Analysis

To present the prevalence of concomitant superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD) among patients with osteosclerosis and to compare it to the general population by using a pooled meta-analysis based upon a systematic literature review.

PubMed, Web of Science, Google Scholar, enrolled papers' references lists.

A systematic literature review was performed according to Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses guidelines. The database search yielded 371 articles, and 92 studies underwent full-text review. The extracted data include age, sex, computerized tomographic (CT) characteristics, and the presence of SSCD in the general population and among otosclerosis patients.

The general population arm included 17 papers, and the otosclerosis arm included 5 papers, resulting in 8,392 and 1,169 ears, respectively. The pooled prevalence of radiologic SSCD was 4.0% (95% CI: 2.7-5.5%) in the general population and 3.2 to 4.3% (95% CI: 1.2-6.1% and 2.5-6.6%, respectively) among patients with otosclerosis ( p = 0.650 and p = 0.813, respectively). The minor difference in SSCD prevalence in the general population is the result of disagreement between investigators.

The prevalence of SSCD among patients with otosclerosis is not significantly different from that of the general population. CT should therefore be considered as part of the preoperative workup for patients with otosclerosis.