So what are the risks of a stapedectomy surgery?
Well dizziness and imbalance are quite common and occur in 1 out of 20 patients this is usually
short-lived for a few days after surgery maybe a week the you will have some dizziness with quick
head turns for about three weeks after surgery it is very rare to have persistent dizziness
after that time another risk of the surgery is a disturbance of taste and that's because
as you can see this right here is a nerve to your taste buds and it is in the area
of the surgery and in certain circumstances it can be in the way of this surgeon and so
it has to be gently moved out of the way to get better access to the stapes footplate
moving this generally causes no issues this tastes disturbance can um happen in 20 of people it's 2
in 10. what this presents as is a metallic taste or dry dry mouth or sore tongue and if
this happens it generally resolves the majority of cases after three to four months it does take
a little time because it's a nerve but rarely is it ever permanent another risk of the surgery is
actually worsening of your hearing remember that i said there's a 95 chance that the surgery can
bring your hearing up to the level of your up to or near the level of your inner ear hearing
however there's still that five percent and of that around two percent actually could worsen
and that may be due to scar tissue infection blood vessel spasm or irritation of the inner ear fluids
very rarely in one percent of patients the hearing can actually be damaged from infection
or any of those other factors to the extent that it cannot be helped with the use of a hearing aid
and again this is very rare but it is a risk of the procedure other risks of the surgery are
bleeding which is very uncommon infection which is also very uncommon or a hole in the eardrum
a hole in the eardrum occurs in less than one percent of cases and fortunately it could
heal on its own but if it does not it could be repaired with additional surgery
there's a very rare risk of damage to a facial nerve the facial nerve
to one side of your face goes through the middle ear space and is in the vicinity of the surgery
however damage to this is exceedingly rare but it does have to be mentioned as a risk
after all that information you may be thinking wow there's a lot of risks to this procedure
well like i i want to encourage you the overall complication rate is less than one percent even
though all those things may happen generally the outcomes are very very good and here at
house clinic we have done thousands of these procedures and feel very comfortable doing
them so i hope that reassures you as far as your decision to either pursue surgery
or a different option for your otosclerosis hi i'm erin associate director of education and global
hearing health here at the house institute foundation thank you for watching our video
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