Stapes surgery in relation to age.

This prospective study aims to evaluate the efficacy of stapedotomy in relation to age. Eighty-four ears of 82 consecutive patients who underwent stapedotomy were studied. Patients were divided into five groups according to their age. In each patient, we evaluated the pre- and postoperative auditory thresholds, according to the Committee on Hearing and Equilibrium of the American Academy of Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery guidelines. Statistically significant (P < 0.05) differences between the pre- and postoperative air conduction thresholds were observed in all groups. Statistically significant reductions of air-bone gap were observed at lower-medium frequencies (250, 500 and 1000 Hz) in the elderly as well as in the younger patients. We did not find a higher susceptibility of the inner ear to surgical trauma in the elderly in comparison to the younger patients. Our data show that stapedotomy results in older adults are comparable to those obtained in the younger, without an increased incidence of complications.