OBJECTIVES To evaluate the usefulness of silicone blocks as graft material for mastoid cavity obliteration in the prevention of problematic mastoid cavities after canal wall down mastoidectomies. METHODS Retrospective evaluation of 20 patients who underwent mastoid obliteration with silicone blocks between 2002 and 2009 at the Chonnam National University Hospital. The cases consisted of 17 pa...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate the initial and longer term success of closing the air-bone gap (ABG) to 20 dB in ossiculoplasty with canal wall down mastoidectomy. METHODS This study was conducted at a private otologic practice. Patients included those who underwent ossiculoplasty from 1989 to 1996 with canal wall down mastoidectomy, whether primary or revision (33 from a tot...

Chronic otitis media (COM) is completely treated with a single procedure in most patients but may require multiple surgeries in some cases. The main goals of open cavity mastoidectomy are to completely eradicate the disease, create a large enough meatus for examination and mastoid air cells, and provide a self-cleaning epithelized dry cavity, and achieve maximum hearing. In this report, we pres...

Hunter et al summarized their 10 years’ experience of only 7 patients undergoing cochlear implant (CI) surgery after previous canal wall-down mastoidectomy using a single-layer external auditory canal overclosure technique. The authors seem to be surprised that their findings of 2 ear canal failures contradict the experience of 303 patients reported in the literature—including our own study. In...

Introduction The objectives of mastoidectomy in cholesteatoma are a disease-free and dry ear, the prevention of recurrent disease, and the maintenance of hearing or the possibility to reconstruct an affected hearing mechanism. Canal wall down mastoidectomy has been traditionally used to achieve those goals with greater or lesser degrees of success. However, canal wall down is an aggressive appr...

OBJECTIVE To analyse patients with cholesteatoma undergoing canal wall down mastoidectomy together with ossicular reconstruction with a titanium prosthesis, in order to identify factors associated with hearing outcomes. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective review of 97 cases undergoing single-stage surgical management. METHODS All patients underwent canal wall down mastoidectomy. Kurz titanium ossicu...