Background: Otitis media is a frequent condition. Chronic infections of the middle ear can lead to defects of bony walls and development of complications.
Material and methods: We performed prospective analysis of patients operated on chronic otitis media in ENT Department Jagiellonian University of Krakow between 2004-2008. Nearly 650 operations on ears were performed in that period of time.
Results: Labyrinthine fistule was observed in 40 patients: 36 with COM, 3 with otosclerosis and 1 after head trauma. Vertigo was mentioned in ca. 30% of individuals in preoperative history. Labyrinthine fistule was usually noticed in the course of chronic cholesteatoma otitis media and chronic granulomatous otitis media and almost always it was located on lateral semicircular canal. In these patients defects of facial nerve bony canal were more frequent but the frequency of skull base defects was like in patients without labyrinthine fistule. The fistules were sealed routinely with a fragment of fascia. This procedure proved effective.