Cholesteatoma - KTP Laser or Traditional Surgery
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hi,
My 8 year old son has been diagnosed with c-toma and is going through initial diagnostics. He has been diagnosed with it in his right ear and he has significant loss of hearing there. His left ear has a lot of wax and needs cleaning which the doctor could not remove in his surgery.
The short we have a clean up operation on the 13th of September 2017.
I do know we are heading towards surgery as the doctor has already told us so hence I want to know if we can opt for a KTP Laser surgery which seems to have better outcomes than traditional surgery. Could anyone who has experience with this please respond to me.
Many thanks,
Rajesh
0 likes, 10 replies
Macs rajesh91064
Posted
Hi Rajesh - we ended up paying privately for laser for our sons op after a lot of research. If you are in England there are some places that do laser on NHS (we are in Scotland so couldn't) . From our experience it's been a big success - he has normal hearing in both ears despite having had large growths wrapped around his facial nerve in one ear & most of hearing bones gone in the other. Key thing is to get it out fast - can be much faster growing in kids. Also our excellent surgeon told our son NEVER to sniff again as after the op there's some Scandinavian research showing that could be a factor in causing it. Our son had no recurrence after implementing this approach. Hope this helps and very best wishes for the ops.
rajesh91064 Macs
Posted
Hi Macs -Thanks a lot for your reply. We have just got the diagnosis on the Monday of this week and we plan to meet with Mr. John Hamilton at Cirencester tomorrow. Hopefully we can have a swift move towards surgery. We are already going private so getting him operated as soon as possible and required is our focus.
?What was your son's experience with the surgery. Did he need multiple surgeries? How was the recovery process. Apologies for too many questions but there are not enough resources on the internet that talk about laser surgery. If easier I could talk with you.
?Many thanks again.
nicola13480 Macs
Posted
I'm pretty certain we have the same surgeon. Our daughter has been told not to sniff as well and he mentioned a little boy from Scotland. Glad to hear your son is doing well. Our daughter had her third op at the day before yesterday. This was her first laser surgery after a change of consultant etc and it seems to have gone well. I think they're onto something with the sniffing. She's ten and hates the sensation of blowing her nose and as a result sniffs more. We're working on that now 😊
Macs nicola13480
Posted
Hope the recovery is going well...Agree re sniffing - hope it breaks the cycle for your daughter. We are back down south for check up late this week but recent local hearing tests & MRI all reassuring.
carol02333 rajesh91064
Posted
My son was 9 when he was diagnosed and had a radical mastoidectomy CWD. At the time, we were not offered any sort of laser treatment. We are in the US. Although the surgery was frightening, we have had no regrowth after 3 years. He underwent a minor procedure to remove a small piece of bone that embedded itself in his outer ear. Our surgeon is amazing and spent a long while in the OR to ensure that all of the ctoma was removed. My son is a normal, happy, healthy boy.
I hope that your son has similar results no matter if it's laser or traditional.
rajesh91064 carol02333
Posted
Thanks a lot Carol. Could you share how is hearing was and did the surgeon need to do any reconstruction for the hearing to be improved?
?Best wishes for your son maintaining a c'toma free life.
gillian82304 rajesh91064
Posted
Hi, FYI St John's Hospital, Livingston do KTP Laser treatment for cholesteatoma.
Macs gillian82304
Posted
gillian82304 rajesh91064
Posted
Hi, I saw my ent consultant yesterday and he advised that they don't ktp laser treatment at St Johns. Although they have the laser they don't use if to mastoid\cholesteatoma surgery. He said they didn't think it was safe!
Macs gillian82304
Posted
They have one & use it (for adults) at Ninewells in Dundee as we got some NHS aftercare there after going privately down south for paediatric laser surgery.