[Stapedotomie with the use of CO2 laser--"one shot" technique].

INTRODUCTION

CO2 laser is used in stapes surgery due to good water absorption and quite optimal ablation of a bony structure without the influence of inner ear parameters.

AIM OF THE STUDY: the assessment of the influence of CO2 - "one shot" laser on hearing results in the patients group with otosclerosis.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: The study was carried out on a patients group after surgical treatment. The follow up time was at least 6 months. The hearing results were described according to the guidelines of the American Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium. The obtained results were statistically analysed with the use of the Wilcoxon sequence pair test.

RESULTS

The CO2 - "one shot" laser has been used in Department of Otolaryngology in Poznań since July 2009. Using this system 101 operations were carried out to the end of December 2011. 54 patients were in the analysed group, there were 40 women and 14 men, the age range from 22 to 59. In the Wilcoxon sequence pair test there was a statistically significant correlation between the value of the hearing threshold in pre- and post-operative examinations at 0.5, 1, 2 and 3kHz for bone and air conduction. We found also a statistically significant correlation between the mean value of the air-bone gap before and after treatment. In the group after the surgery the cochlear reserved became closed or decreased (p<0.001).

CONCLUSION

based of the hearing results we found great usefulness of CO2 - "one shot" laser in stapes surgery.