Surgical treatment of otosclerosis in the aged. Results of retrospective analysis

Otosclerosis is, per se, a disease which rarely occurs after the age of 50. This is why stapes surgery is seldom performed in advanced age and there are few reports on the topic in the literature. The authors have performed a retrospective analysis of patients over the age of 65 who had undergone surgery for otosclerosis in the last 27 years. Out of a total of 3585 surgical procedures, 106 patients were analyzed. Most of the cases were in the advanced stages. Assessment of the outcome included pre- and post-operative audiometry, one year after surgery. Inner ear performance was established by evaluating air and bone conduction at 0.5, 1, 2, 3 and 4 kHz. The results showed that performing otosclerosis surgery is worthwhile even in the elderly with mixed auditory impairment, as long as the air-bone gap is limited to 20-30 dB and the surgical procedure is through. In this light, stapedotomy appears to be the most adequate technique. When evaluating the results the possibility of adopting a less powerful hearing aid should also be considered a success