Fate of middle ear implants

During the period 1981 through 1993, 613 cases out of a total of 4340 ear operations performed, needed ossicular chain reconstruction. This excludes stapedectomy operations. Out of 613 cases, 371 were cholesteatomatous and the rest were of safe chronic otitis media. Various graft materials used in ossicular reconstruction consisted of autologous ossicles or tragal cartilage, homologous preserved ossicles, cortical bone, human dentine, cadaveric styloid process and gold prosthesis. Results of the study show the extrusion rate of 1.54% with autologous ossicles, 1.43% with homologous ossicles, 1.19% with tragal cartilage, 3.61% with human cadaveric costal cartilage, 5.45% with cadaveric styloid process, 7.14% with dentine and 8.70% with gold prosthesis. These results are largely comparable with other studies. Natural graft materials like autologous and homologous ossicles have been found to have better take-up and long-term acceptance.