Analysis of hearing improvement in the patients operated on due to otosclerosis in the Otolaryngology Department of Jagiellonian University of Cracow, Poland.

BACKGROUND: Otosclerosis is the most common cause of condactive hearing loss between 15 and 50 years old. The most common symptoms are hearinglosss and tinnitus. Surgery is currently the preferred treatment method.

AIM: The aim of our study was to analyze the outcomes of patients treated surgically due to otosclerosis in terms of the observed changes in pure tone audiometry and speech audiometry Material and methods: We observated 300 patients operated on middle ear for the fist time in the Department of Otolarygology at the Jagiellonian University of Cracow from 2010 to 2011. We used a special questinnaire which includes diagnostics of the ear"s disease,pure tone audiometry, speech audiometrii and longterm effects.

RESULTS: We discuss 53 operated ears and analyze changes in pure tone audiometry. We divided patients into 2 groups depending on 100% speech understanding in speech auodiometry or not.

CONCLUSION: 1. Lack of 100% speech understanding in speech audiometry correlated with greater sensorineural hearing loss than in patients who achieved 100% speech understanding prior to surgery. 2. Lack of 100% speech understanding in speech audiometry is a predictive factor for worse prognosis in improving hearing in patients operated on for otosclerosis. 3. Reconstruction of the ossicular chain in patients, regardless of the degree of speech understanding, did not produce significant changes in the average values of bone conduction.