"Julia Briggs" <julia4_me@yahoo.com> wrote in news:1113927559.410830.267020
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

I noticed that no one answered your question, so I did a little research.

Otosclerosis is a disease in which certain parts of the temporal bone seem
to proliferate with no known cause. It is the most common cause of
hereditary adult onset conductive hearing loss. This bony proliferation
will fix the footplate of the stapes and, eventually, lead to a conductive
hearing loss.

The earlier way of operating included removing the entire footplate from
the oval window (stapedectomy), placing a fascia or vein graft over the
oval window and putting a prosthesis from the incus down to this graft.

More recently some surgeons perform a stapedotomy procedure. This is an
operation where the superstructure of the stapes is removed and a small
hole is drilled in the footplate of the stapes down into the vestibule. A
small prosthesis is then hooked over the incus and placed down into this
hole. This transmits the vibrations from the ossicular chain and tympanic
membrane into the vestibule so the patients can hear better.

Regarding your question of doctors, I found several studies that indicate
that the doctors performance is directional proportional to the number of
surgeries performed, especially for stapedotomy. There are a couple of
critical steps in this surgery, and doctors experience provides improvement
of results.

Hope this helps a little.

Also, did you notice that this ailment is hereditary?