title: Long-term Follow-up Study of the Sandwich Cartilage Shoe Technique in Cases of Insecure Stapes Footplate.
abstract: Analysis of the audiometric results after repair of a defective footplate with the sandwich cartilage shoe technique in a follow-up study.
  
  
  
  Retrospective analysis of audiometric data.
  
  
  
  Hospital.
  
  
  
  The cohort consisted of 12 patients, who underwent ossicular reconstruction after sandwich cartilage shoe technique in a case of insecure stapes footplate. The mean age was 42.7 years with an equal sex distribution. In every patient, cholesteatoma was the reason for surgery with 75% being revision cases.
  
  
  
  Sandwich cartilage shoe technique in case of insecure stapes footplate at the department of otorhinolaryngology, head and neck surgery at the University of Cologne over an 8-year period (2007-2015).
  
  
  
  The use of the "sandwich cartilage shoe technique" in case of a broken or unstable footplate allows a safe occlusion of the open vestibule.
  
  
  
  The statistical analysis revealed a significant improvement of the pure-tone average (p = 0.011) and air-bone gap (ABG) (p = 0.016) after total ossicular replacement prosthesis (TORP) implantation. The hearing was stable at 9 months of follow up.
  
  
  
  The sandwich cartilage shoe technique offers a safe and effective option as a two-stage procedure in treating patients with fractures of the stapes footplate in case of chronic otitis media. In view of the possible risk of deafness going along with a destruction of an inner ear window, our results can be considered substantial as all our patients will at least be able to regain "social hearing" as they all either achieved a hearing threshold is less than 30 dB or can be sufficiently supplied with a conventional hearing aid.
authors.affiliation: University of Cologne, Medical Faculty, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Cologne, Germany.
authors.forename: Jan Christoffer
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Lüers
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Schwarz
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anagiotos
authors.forename: Antoniu-Oreste
authors.initials: AO
authors.lastname: Gostian
authors.forename: Dirk
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Beutner
authors.forename: Karl Bernd
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Hüttenbrink
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002781:Cholesteatoma / Q000209:etiology / Q000601:surgery; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006309:Hearing; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000150:complications / Q000601:surgery; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013199:Stapes; D013201:Stapes Surgery / Q000379:methods*; D016896:Treatment Outcome