Microdrill, Diode Laser, and Manual Microsurgical Stapedoplasty: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Background: To evaluate hearing outcome, operation time and post-operative hospital stay after primary stapedoplasty with three different techniques: manual microsurgical, microdrill-assisted, and microdrill-and laser-assisted technique. Methods: A retrospective analysis of 150 consecutive cases of primary otosclerosis was operated by one surgeon. The patients were divided into three groups depending on the utilized surgical techniques: a fully manual microsurgical stapedoplasty (n = 56), microdrill-assisted stapedoplasty (n = 32), and microdrill-and laser-assisted stapedoplasty (n = 62). The mean pre-and post-operative air-bone gap was calculated by using pre-and post-operative mean pure tone air-and bone-conduction thresholds at 500, 1000, 2000 and 4000 Hz. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in the hearing outcome between the groups. The closure of air-bone gap and the improvement of the hearing were demonstrated in all study groups. Introduction of diode laser for stapes surgery resulted in significantly reduced operation time (about one-third) and the increase in the completion of surgery from 81.5% to 96.7%. At the same time, the rate of complications stayed low and hospital stay dropped from three days to one day. There were no major post-operative complications in any study groups. Conclusions: Application of diode laser in stapes surgery significantly reduced operation time and increased completion rate of surgery. No statistically significant difference was found between three surgical techniques regarding hearing outcome.