Artificial stapes - a fourteen-year report.

This paper is based on 3,500 cases of otosclerosis operated on during the past 14 years restoring the continuity of the ossicular chain by means of an artificial stapes. Eighty percent showed practically a closure of the air-bone gap. There was no hearing gain in 17 percent of the patients, many of which showed reversal to preoperative levels. Three percent of the patients suffered sensori-neural hearing loss and 1 percent cophosis. Necrosis of the incus occurred in 0.3 percent of the patients and perilymphatic fistula in 0.2 percent. Only one case of inflammatory granuloma was observed as a complication of stapedectomy.