A STUDY OF LONG TERM HEARING RESULTS IN FENESTRATION SURGERY

Abstract

OF THE several controversial points regarding the results of fenestration surgery, the permanency of the hearing result and the possible effect of the operation on the progressive nature of the disease are certainly not the least significant. In an attempt to find an answer to these questions, a careful study was made of 390 cases of fenestration, which have been followed for five to 10 years. These cases were chosen from a total series of 743 fenestrations performed between July 1940 and July 1945 at the Wesley Memorial Hospital, Chicago, with use of the continuous irrigation and binocular dissecting microscope technic devised by Shambaugh at Northwestern University.1 The cases were chosen chronologically on the basis of whether the records were complete over at least a five year period, and no cases were included in which there had not been follow-up examinations by repeated audiograms and clinical observations for that minimum