Objectives: We report two surgical techniques devised to restore a disrupted incudostapedial joint.
Material and methods: Thirty patients underwent rebridging of distal portion of incus long process in the ENT Department of University of Grenoble and Saint-Etienne, between October 1998 and September 2002. Two types of ossicular prostheses were used: A titanium-gold angle prosthesis according to Plester Winkel Kurz (n = 16 patients), and a hydroxylapatite prosthesis as Martin Incudo Prosthesis (n = 14 patients).
Results: The average hearing gain in short term is of 8.30 dB for the Martin-Incudo group. It is of 5.23 dB in the Winkel group. Seven and three cases of failures (Residual Rinne > 20 dB) were noticed respectively in the groups Martin-Incudo and Winkel. Seven and four cases of labyrinthisation were observed respectively in the groups Martin-Incudo and Winkel. The average hearing gain in long term is 3.43 dB in the Martin-Incudo group; and 2.85 dB among patients with Winkel Kurz prosthesis. Average residual Rinne is higher than 20 dB in the Winkel group. The hearing gain is not statistically significant between the two groups (p > 0.05).
Conclusion: The titanium partial prosthesis did not give good functional results. In the case of a limited lysis (< 2 mm) of the distal portion of incus, we use the cement or cartilage interposition. When ossicular chain cannot be preserved entirely, we privilege incus transposition or a titanium PORP. The Martin-Incudo prosthesis seems interesting in the event of lysis of 2 mm of the long process of incus, nevertheless engineering changes are necessary in order to make rigid the incudostapedial joint.