Blood pressure changes and stapes surgery: Preliminary reports on a suspected correlation

BACKGROUND: Despite the delicacy of stapes surgery, it is not always easy to explain the rare pitfalls, possible even when surgery is correctly performed. As the labyrinth is known to influence blood pressure, and vice versa, it seemed of some interest to match blood pressure values at admission and discharge and pre- and postoperative bone conduction in subjects under antihypertensive therapy submitted to stapes surgery between 2010 and 2015. The results, conversely with respect to old studies, seemed not to indicate a significant correlation. The small sample renders this study a preliminary report: A multivariate analysis on a greater sample, considering other possible threatens to the inner ear, could be useful to collect more exhaustive information about this problem. METHODS: The study included 35 consecutive subjects under antihypertensive therapy submitted to stapes surgery. RESULTS: The analysis of the blood pressure data shows that mean blood pressure did not present significant changes. CONCLUSIONS: The sample is too small to draw definitive conclusions: Consequently, our results can only be considered as preliminary ones.