Abstract
Many Japanese institutions use the Japan Otological Society criteria (2000) for the assessment of hearing gain in evaluating the postoperative hearing results following stapes surgery. However, there may be problems with high success rates, a lack of consideration of high frequency hearing, and differences in methods of measuring postoperative air-bone gap and assessment criteria between Japan and overseas. In this study, we compared postoperative results using the Japan Otological Society criteria (2000) and the American Academy of Otolaryngology (AAO-HNS) guidelines. We altered parameters such as the frequencies used, the method of calculation of the average hearing level, and the use of preoperative or postoperative bone conduction thresholds. As the result, we found that success rates were significantly higher using the Japan Otological Society criteria (2000) than the AAO-HNS guidelines. No influence was seen on postoperative results using the mean of 3 frequencies: 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 kHz or the mean of 4 frequencies with the addition of 3.0 or 4.0 kHz. Furthermore, no difference was seen in the results between using the preoperative or postoperative bone conduction threshold to calculate the postoperative air-bone gap. We also displayed the audiology results using an Amsterdam hearing evaluation plot, which provided a useful visual presentation of each patient's results.
