[Revision stapedectomy].

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the causes of failure in otosclerosis surgery.

Material And Method: We performed 23 revisions of stapedectomy during the period between January 2000 and April 2005. The time between the primary surgery and the revision surgery ranged from 3 months to 25 years. The most frequent reasons for revision surgery were first of all patients with closed initial gap and progressive hearing loss in 56.52 % of cases and secondly patients without any initial hearing improvement in 39.12 % of cases.

Results: The main surgical findings were: short prosthesis in correct position (13.04 %), displaced prosthesis (60.87 %), bridles over the oval window (65.22 %), necrosis of the long process of the incus (26.2 %), and obliterative footplate (26.09 %). As for the audiometric results, we got a complete closure of gap in 60.8 % of patients (n = 14), partial closure of gap in 13.2 % (n = 3), persistence of the initial gap in 21.7 % (n = 5), and cophosis in 4.3 % (n = 1).

Conclusions: The migration of the prosthesis is the main cause of failure after stapedectomy. Good closure of the gap was achieved in two thirds of the patients.