OBJECTIVETo study the long-term effect of stapes surgery on tympanosclerosis and its influence factors.

METHODSThe effect of stapes surgery on tympanosclerosis was retrospectively summed up in 119 patients (149 ears) in General Hospital of people's Liberation Army from April 1984 to March 2002. The Stata 7.0 software was used as a statistical tool.

RESULTSThe average of hearing threshold (hearing level) of air conduction was (50.7 +/- 12.1) dB before operation, and the hearing loss was mostly on low frequency. Following-up the half-year post-operation, the average of hearing threshold of air conduction was (25.6 +/- 15.2) dB. The total successful rate of post-operation half year, 1 year, 2 and 5 years were 50.3%, 45.8%, 41.3% and 34.5%, respectively. Comparing the different operation methods, stapedotomy (piston technique) owned the best effect on hearing recovery (62.5%), then was stapedectomy (43.1%), but the last one was stapediolysis (30.8%). There was significant difference effect among three different operation methods (P < 0.05). The average of hearing threshold of air conduction was steadily within the first five-years following-up (Ridit analysis, P > 0.05), but obviously increased more than 5 years after operation (Ridit analysis, P < 0.05). The influence factors to successful rate were the following-up time post-operation, pathological changes of stapes, operative methods, and complications during operation, respectively.

CONCLUSIONStapes surgery is the effective method to treat tympanosclerosis, but the long-term effect is not good enough as expectation. It is important to select proper operation methods for better hearing results.