Hearing impairment exists when there is any difficulty in the middle or external ear. A nerve or sensorineural hearing occurs when there is any trouble in the inner ear. If you face hearing impairment due to middle and inner ear problems, this is known as combined or mixed impairment. It is however common in Otosclerosis.
Hearing impairment
- The vibration in the ear results in Eardrum. It transfers that vibration to the 3 bones in the middle ear which are the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup).
- However, when there is a movement in the stapes bone, it makes inner ear fluids motion. This further proceeds to stimulate the tiny sensory hair cells in the inner ear. This connects the hearing nerve. The brain then gets information from this nerve that fallouts into Sound. If there is any disturbance under this process, it leads to hearing impairment.
When you feel any kind of hearing impairment, it often leads to Otosclerosis.
Otosclerosis is a disease that states abnormal growth of bone across the stapes bone (stapes bone is the tiny bones around the middle ear). This must be fixed via treatment known as Stapedectomy.
Symptoms/ Indications of Otosclerosis which states the need for Stapedectomy
- Gradual hearing loss – If a person cannot hear low sounds or whispers.
- Other disorders could be ringing, buzzing, roaring, and tinnitus (hissing in the head or ear).
Otosclerosis is most common and can be diagnosed by examination and hearing tests (pure tone audiometry and tympanogram). It helps observe whether the sound is reaching the eardrum.
This procedure is outperformed under general or local anaesthesia. A microscope is used to perform the surgery which will go through the ear canal. The process of Stapedectomy contains stapes removing immobilized stapes bone and also removing it with a prosthetic device. This device lets middle ear bones restart the movement, improves and restores hearing, and stimulates fluid in the inner ear.
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