Laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis (laser STAMP): absence of refixation.

OBJECTIVE: To determine what percentage of patients with otosclerosis could successfully undergo a laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis over a 5-year period, and to determine the percentage of patients in whom refixation develops during follow-up.

STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective case review of 136 patients (137 ears) who underwent primary surgery for otosclerosis.

SETTING: An otology/neurotology tertiary referral center.

PATIENTS: Patients were chosen if they had clinical evidence of otosclerosis without a history of otologic surgery.

INTERVENTIONS: A standard stapes approach was used for all patients. For the laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis, a hand-held laser probe was used to vaporize the anterior crus of the stapes and perform a linear stapedotomy across the anterior one third of the footplate. If otosclerosis was confined to the fissula ante fenestram, the stapes became completely mobile. The stapedotomy opening was sealed with an adipose tissue graft from the ear lobe.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Pure-tone audiometry with appropriate masking and auditory discrimination testing was performed before surgery, 6 weeks after surgery, and every year thereafter.

RESULTS: Of the 137 cases, favorable anatomy and minimal otosclerosis allowed 46 (33.6%) of these patients to undergo laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis. Fifty-seven patients (41.6%) could not undergo the procedure because of extensive otosclerosis. The remaining 34 patients (24.8%) did not receive laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis because of other anatomic or technical difficulties. Of the 34 patients in the laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis group with more than 4 months follow-up, the average air-bone gap was closed from a mean of 22 dB (SD 10 dB) to 6 dB (SD 4 dB) 6 weeks postoperatively. Follow-up periods ranged from 5 months to 53 months (mean 767 days, SD 437 days). The long-term air-bone gap improved slightly to an average of 5 dB (SD 6 dB) in comparison with the sixth postoperative week value.

CONCLUSION: Laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis is a minimally invasive procedure, which over the follow-up period has a very low incidence of refixation, as evidenced by a lack of progressive conductive hearing loss. The success of this procedure depends on the correct selection of cases. This procedure has been successfully performed on 33.6% of patients undergoing primary stapes surgery. Laser stapedotomy minus prosthesis seems to be a viable alternative to conventional stapedotomy that yields good results without evidence of refixation over an extended time.