Hearing-Preserving Approaches to the Internal Auditory Canal: Feasibility Assessment from the Perspective of an Endoscope

Abstract

Minimally invasive transcanal transpromontorial endoscopic approaches to the internal auditory canal sacrifice the cochlea. Two hearing-preserving approaches, the exclusively endoscopic transcanal infracochlear approach and the endoscope-assisted transmastoid retrolabyrinthine approach, have been controversially discussed in the literature. In this study, we examine the feasibility of these 2 approaches by means of three-dimensional surface models, a population-based analysis of the available surgical space, and dissections in human whole-head specimens.