Incidence and management of complications of stapes surgery.

Moderator Howard House: Complications of stapes surgery basically are untoward results, anything less than the goal that you were shooting for in doing a stapes procedure for a given patient. This may mean bringing a patient to hear better with a body aid. It may be getting rid of their body aid and getting them to the point where they can wear an ear-level aid, or it may be to getting along without an aid most of the time. They may still need it for distant conversation or may indeed be able to disregard their aid. The first disppointment arises from not making it clear to the patient exactly what we are shooting for. Dr. John J. Shea: I give the patient a little booklet which explains generally what the condition is, what you propose to do in simple diagrammatic pictures, and what you expect that you can accomplish by