How does
stapes surgery infl uence severe disabling tinnitus in otosclerosis patients?
Oliveira CA
Department of Otolaryngology, Brasilia University Medical School, Brasilia,
Brazil.
cacpoliveira@brturbo.com.br
Tinnitus is a common symptom in otosclerosis patients.
Many papers have
been written about tinnitus outcome after stapes surgery.
However, none
has attempted to quantify the intensity of the symptom preand postoperatively
in order to evaluate the influence of surgery on the degree of annoyance
caused by tinnitus.
Severe disabling tinnitus (SDT) is defined by Shulman
as a symptom severe enough to disrupt the patient's routine and to prevent
him from performing his daily tasks.
We have studied 48 consecutive otosclerosis
patients by means of a visual analogue scale measuring tinnitus intensity
before and after stapes surgery.
We have accepted tinnitus as severe and
disabling when the symptom score was 7 or above in a visual analogue scale
from 1 to 10.
Of 19 patients with preoperative SDT, 10 reported complete
remission and 7 reported significant improvement.
Two patients had no
change and none reported worsening of tinnitus after stapes surgery.
We
conclude that stapes surgery can improve SDT significantly in 90% of
otosclerosis patients and is very unlikely to make the symptom worse.
_________________________________________________________________________________
Fuente:
Adv Otorhinolaryngol. 2007;65:343-347.
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario