Otosclerosis is an abnormal, microscopic growth of bone in the walls of the inner ear which causes the stapes bone, commonly called the "stirrup", to become frozen in place or "fixed". Normally the stapes, the smallest bone in the body, vibrates freely to allow the transmission of sound into the inner ear. When it becomes cemented to the surrounding bone it prevents sound waves from reaching the inner ear fluids, and hearing is impaired.
Otosclerosis ...Ear Surgery Information Center Excellent site that has a computer generated slide show of the actual procedure. It takes a few reviews of the slides to understand what everything actually represents.
What Is A Stapedectomy? A stapedectomy is an outpatient surgical procedure done under local or general anesthesia through the ear canal with an operating microscope. (No outer incisions are made.) It involves removing the immobilized stapes bone and replacing it with a prosthetic device. The prosthetic device allows the bones of the middle ear to resume movement, which stimulates fluid in the inner ear and improves or restores hearing.
Modern-day stapedectomies have been performed since 1956 with a success rate of 90 percent. In rare cases (about one percent of surgeries), the procedure may worsen hearing.
Otosclerosis affects both ears in eight out of ten patients. For these patients, ears are operated on one at a time; the worst hearing ear first.
Continued definition of What Is Otosclerosis? Normally sound, which consists of vibrations of air molecules, is funneled by the auricle, or "outer ear", through the ear canal to the eardrum. Movements of the eardrum are transferred to the ossicles, and the stapes vibrates in and out of the oval window. The vibration of the stapes sets up a movement of the inner ear fluids. This, in turn, stimulates the fine sense organs of the inner ear, which then stimulate the nerve of hearing which carries the sound energy to the brain. It is this sequence of events that results in normal hearing.
Occasionally the otosclerotic bone involves other structures of the inner ear so that, in addition to preventing sound from entering the ear, it causes a distortion or difficulty in understanding the speech of others, regardless of how loudly they talk. This is because the nerves of the inner ear have become affected. In such cases there is not only the "conductive" deafness already discussed, whereby sound waves are obstructed in reaching the inner ear, but in addition, "sensorineural" or "nerve" deafness, in which the function of the inner ear itself has been impaired.
Otosclerosis affects the ears only and not other parts of the body. When this condition is present, both ears are usually involved. It occurs in men and women with almost equal frequency and usually begins in the teens or early twenties. Although otosclerosis tends to run in families, it does so irregularly; parents with otosclerosis do not necessarily transmit it to their offspring.
