Assessment of Bone Conduction Thresholds After Surgical Treatment in Patients with Labyrinthine Fistula

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to analyze the bone conduction thresholds before and after surgery in chronicotitis media patients with cholesteatoma who hadlabyrinthine fistula and whose cholesteatoma matrixhad been completely cleaned.Methods: The study was performed between 2013to 2017 with 23 chronic otitis media patients whohad labyrinthine fistula with cholesteatoma and whowere operated at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology of Dicle University School of Medicine.Patients were assessed by anamnesis and examination and when necessary, by temporal computerizedtomography and diffusion magnetic resonance imaging. Bone conduction thresholds at frequencies of500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz were determined byaudiometric examination and they were comparedbefore and after surgery.Results: Of the 23 patients, 12 were female and 11were male; their age range was 10–55 (26.04±14.13)years. In the post-operative period, it was possible to conduct audiological follow-up on 20 patients.In these follow-ups, 16 patients showed no changein bone conduction thresholds, two patients showedworsening, and two showed improvement. Whenpre- and post-operative bone conduction thresholdsat each frequency were compared separately, no significant difference was found (p=0.937). No statistically significant difference was found between thepre- and post-operative means at the four frequencies(p=0.712).Conclusion: In this study, we found that to reducecomplications relating to cholesteatoma, it might benecessary to completely remove the matrix especiallyin the case of type 1 and 2 labyrinthine fistulas.