Prognostic factors of long-term outcomes after ossiculoplasty using multivariate analysis.

The objective of the retrospective study is to investigate the prognostic factors of long-term outcomes following ossiculoplasty. The setting was a tertiary referral and academic center. The series consisted of 269 patients, who underwent ossiculoplasty by the same surgeon between 1989 and 2003 and were followed for more than 5 years. Postoperative hearing outcomes were considered successful, if the postoperative air-bone gap was <20 dB. Prognostic factors were analyzed using multivariate analysis with logistic regression. Successful hearing was achieved in 143 patients (53.2%). The presence of the stapes and primary surgery was significantly favorable predictive factors. Better knowledge of these predictive factors may contribute to improve the surgeon's judgement and the information given to the patients preoperatively.