Stability of Hearing over an Eight-Year Period following Wire-Vein Stapedectomy for Otosclerosis

This study was undertaken to determine the stability of hearing in patients over an eight-year period following a wire-vein graft stapedectomy procedure for otosclerosis. The method was to compare the four-month and eight-year postoperative hearing test results for a population of 76 patients who had undergone this procedure. No significant decrements in pure-tone thresholds were shown over the eight years for the speech frequencies (500, 1000, 2000 Hz). Decrements of approximately 0.5 dB and 1 dB per year over the eight-year period occurred for 4000 and 8000 Hz, respectively. These decrements did not seem to be associated with aging. A slight decrement of 2.8 percentage points in mean speech discrimination score was shown over the eight-year period, while no change occurred in mean speech reception threshold. There were no serious postoperative complications for this group of patients. These results indicated good stability of hearing over the eight years.