Objective: Our objective was to describe the diagnosis and treatment of postinflammatory medial canal fibrosis by reviewing a large series.
Study design: This study was conducted via retrospective chart review.
Setting: This study was conducted at a tertiary otologic referral center.
Patients: The 24 patients had a clinical diagnosis of postinflammatory medial canal stenosis. Only one of the 16 females and eight males was under 18 years of age, and the mean age for the group was 50.5 years (range 5-78). fourteen patients had bilateral diseases.
Intervention: Surgical therapy was performed in 14 ears (11 patients), and medical therapy was performed in nine.
Results: For patients undergoing surgical treatment, mean pure-tone average hearing threshold improved from 37 dB preoperatively to 26 dB postoperatively. The air-bone gap improved from 24 dB to 15 dB. There were three recurrences of disease in the surgery group.
Conclusion: Postinflammatory medial canal stenosis is a rare disorder resulting from chronic external otitis that required surgical intervention to correct the resulting conductive hearing loss.