title: [Cochlear damage caused by middle ear surgeries].
abstract: A prospective study was set up to study the reaction of the cochlea after the trauma of middle-ear surgery. For this purpose, the bone conduction of 50 patients was tested every day, beginning on the first post-operative day. To collect information on possible damaging mechanisms, three surgical techniques were studied: Stapes surgery with the opening of the inner ear; mastoidectomy with drill-generated noise; tympanoplasty with manipulations at the stapes. The comparison of the bone conduction thresholds with audiometry results after completed healing of the ear, disclosed that even under the ear-packing, bone conduction can give reliable information on cochlea function, if a 10-15 dB variance due to methodological causes is taken into account. Excessive drilling may result in a temporary threshold shift, which has already resolved at the time of unpacking the ear. No signs of hydraulic damage after manipulation at the stapes could be discovered.
authors.affiliation: HNO-Universitäts-Klinik Münster.
authors.forename: K B
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Hüttenbrink
mesh_terms: D001309:Auditory Threshold / Q000502:physiology; D001844:Bone Conduction / Q000502:physiology*; D003051:Cochlea / Q000293:injuries / Q000503:physiopathology; D003638:Deafness / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D006316:Hearing Loss, High-Frequency / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006317:Hearing Loss, Noise-Induced / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008416:Mastoid / Q000601:surgery*; D011183:Postoperative Complications / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013200:Stapes Mobilization; D013201:Stapes Surgery; D014433:Tympanoplasty