Abstract

OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS:

Despite the enthusiasm of recent short-term reviews, no center in the United States has published results meeting American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery guidelines with titanium-based prostheses. The purpose of the study was threefold. The first purpose was to review results with a titanium prosthesis system in cases meeting American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery reporting guidelines. The second was to compare these results with previously published results using non-titanium-based prostheses. The third was to examine the authors' results for any evidence of a "learning curve."

STUDY DESIGN:

Retrospective chart review was performed for the period from February 2000 to August 2001 and for the period from July 2002 to February 2003.

METHODS:

Of 313 cases, 130 consecutive cases were identified in the first period and 65 in the second time period. One hundred two patients had adequate follow-up for published guidelines. All cases were performed by the senior author (c.g.j.). Comparison data were obtained from a previous publication involving the senior author.

RESULTS:

Successful rehabilitation (<or=20 dB pure-tone average air-bone gap) of conductive hearing loss was obtained in 70% of partial ossicular chain reconstructions and 44% of total ossicular chain reconstructions when titanium prostheses were used. Comparison data revealed successful rehabilitation in 48% and 21% of non-titanium-based partial and total reconstructions, respectively. Postoperative pure-tone average air-bone gaps were not significantly different when compared with results in the period from July 2002 to February 2003.

CONCLUSION:

Newer titanium-based ossicular reconstruction devices represent an improvement over previously used non-titanium-based prostheses. The authors think that this improvement is realized rapidly because no learning curve existed in their data.