gms | German Medical Science

Any kind of middle-ear surgery contains the risk of sensorineural hearing loss. From the beginning of January 2007 to the end of September 2007 290 patients underwent ear-surgery at HNO-Klinik of Ameos Klinikum St. Salvator Halberstadt, Germany.

We analyzed audiograms, recorded before and 3-4 days after surgery, regarding sensorineural hearing loss at the frequencies of 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. Patients affected by sensorineural hearing loss got Pentoxifyllin(R) for rheological therapy. As an indication for therapy we defined a hearing loss of at least 15 dB at 2 frequencies. Totally 5 patients (1,7%) suffered from sensorineural hearing loss.

Two of them got a tympanoplasty type I, two got stapesplasty and one got ossicular chain mobilisation. All 5 patients got Pentoxifyllin(R) as an iv-application. Two of these patients showed an improvement of the bone conduction threshold at least at two frequencies. Within the otologic aftercare all patients got an audiogram about 8 weeks after surgery. At this two of these 5 patients showed a complete regeneration of the sensorineural hearing, two an improvement of sensorineural hearing of about 15dB and one a persistent hearing loss.

All in all, the risk of sensorineural hearing loss following middle ear surgery is quite low. 1.7% of the analyzed patients needed treatment because of the hearing loss, which persisted in 3 cases (1%). This result correlates to other clinical trials (1.2-4.5%).