Surgery of tympanosclerosis

Eighty-five cases with tympanosclerosis of the middle ear were treated surgically in this series from 1984 to 1995. Twelve of them were associated with cholesteatoma and had radical surgery performed. An attempt is made here to classify the tympanosclerosis on a patho-physiological basis. A planned two-stage procedure was performed in 36 cases after an interval of 18 months. The majority of patients had stapes surgery carried out by a two-stage procedure. One of the patients who did not have stapes surgery developed anacusis after 18 months post-operatively and in another patient recurrence was observed. Post-operative hearing improvement was found to be satisfactory in the short-term follow-up period of two to five years. The hearing improvement was analysed by using Chi-square value (chi(2)) and also plotted in the Glasgow Benefit Plot.