Middle ear sound transmission: an experimental study

Abstract

Although a stapedectomy is a commonly performed operation, there are still a variety of different techniques available and the relative merits of these have not been completely determined. The different techniques have been reported to give different degrees of hearing improvement for different speech frequencies. The physical properties of the replacement prosthesis such as mass may be responsible for these differences.1 As there are a number of variable factors involved in assessing the operation, such as individual surgical skill, selection of cases and undesirability of performing two or more procedures on the same patient, the different techniques cannot be readily assessed in humans. For this reason it is necessary to perform the operation on an experimental animal such as the cat. In this study the results of using a stainless steel absorbable gelatin sponge (Gelfoam) strut (Schuknecht) and a stainless steel piston (McGee) to replace the stapes in a cat have been evaluated statistically. These were acute experiments and therefore the results may be different when the long term effects of an operation are considered.