The prevalence of tympanosclerosis and the effectiveness of its surgical treatment

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to characterize the epidemiological variants of tympanosclerosis and the effectiveness of the surgical treatment of the patients presenting with this condition. We have undertaken the analysis of the results of 1965 surgical interventions on the patients suffering from different forms of chronic otitis media (COM) performed during the period from 2009 till 2014 with a view to determining the frequency of tympanosclerosis (TSC). In 542 cases, it proved possible to evaluate the intraoperative findings, stages and methods of reconstructive surgery, the anatomical and functional outcomes and effectiveness of the intervention. At present, the signs of tympanosclerosis are identified in 27.6% of the patients presenting with chronic otitis media including 88.7% and 11.3% suffering from the perforating and non-perforating forms of this pathology, respectively. In 74% of the cases its manifestations are diagnosed in the patients having the tubotympanic form of COM. In 53.3% of the patients TSC foci are responsible for the fixation of the ossicular chain whereas in 46.7% of the cases the auditory ossicles retain mobility. As many as 88.6% of the patients underwent the one-step surgical intervention, 10.7% were managed using two-step surgery, and 0.7% of the patients were given the three-stage treatment. Type I tympanoplasty was performed in 62% of the patients, type III tympanoplasty in 30.4%, and various types of stapedoplasty in 4.6% of the cases. The favourable anatomical and functional outcomes at the first stage of the surgical intervention with the use of the autogenous tissues for tympano- and ossiculoplastic surgery were achieved in 87.9% of the patients on the average (by means of the closure of the tympanic defect in 92.2% and by re-fixation of the selected elements of the ossicular chain in 17.3%of the cases). The anatomical and functional effectiveness of the second-stage surgical intervention was estimated at 93.1%.