Does a labyrinthine fistula in cholesteatoma surgery lead to hearing loss?
Reviewed by Sangeeta Maini and Bhaskar Ram

Thirty-five patients with labyrinthine fistula related to cholesteatoma were studied retrospectively. All patients underwent CT scans and preoperative hearing tests 1-2 weeks prior to surgery (averaged at 0.5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 kHz). All 35 patients underwent mastoid surgery, 18 radical mastoidectomies, 16 canal wall down mastoidectomies with tympanoplasty and Bondy’s procedure. Postoperatively only 21 patients were followed up with postoperative audiograms. Twenty-five patients had fistulas of the lateral semicircular canal, four of the posterior semicircular canal, two of the superior semicircular canal and four with involvement of a semicircular canal and the vestibule and / or cochlea. After removal of cholesteatoma matrix from over the fistula, the defect was covered with temporalis fascia (in all cases including in the radical mastoidectomy group). In this group none of the patients had worse hearing, in spite of cholesteatoma matrix removal from over the fistula. Unfortunately only 21 patients were available for follow- up. 

A retrospective study on post-operative hearing of middle ear cholesteatoma patients with labyrinthine fistula.
Bo Y, Yang Y, Xiaodong C, et al.
ACTA OTO-LARYNGOLOGICA
2016;136(1):8-11.