It is commonly accepted that the cochlea emits sound by a backward traveling wave along the cochlear partition. This belief is mainly based on an observation that the group delay of the otoacoustic emission measured in the ear canal is twice as long as the forward delay. In this study, the otoacoustic emission was measured in the gerbil under anesthesia not only in the ear canal but also at the...

It remains to be demonstrated that normal, day-to-day routine surgery is as effective as it would appear from the literature, where the results of very experienced surgeons are presented. The object of this study was to measure our performance for ossicular chain reconstructions. One hundred and thirty-eight total and partial reconstructions performed by 13 different surgeons were evaluated. Th...

OBJECTIVES One of the risks in middle ear surgery is high frequency hearing loss. It is believed that manipulations on the middle ear ossicles with the instruments may cause overstimulation of the inner ear and damage of the hear cells. Controversy arises whether temporary separation of the ossicles has any impact on middle ear transfer function and hearing threshold after surgery. The aim of t...

OBJECTIVE To describe the audiometric results after stapes surgery in a consecutive series of patients with stapes footplate ankylosis combined with another ossicular middle ear anomaly. STUDY DESIGN A retrospective analysis of charts collected between 1986 and 2001. SETTING A tertiary referral center. PATIENTS A total of 25 patients (30 ears) underwent exploratory tympanotomies and ossic...

Otosclerosis is defined as an overgrowth of the bone of the otic capsule just anterior to stapes footplate in between cochlea and vestibule. In such scenario, the stapes is unable to function normally as a piston and eventually becomes completely fixated, which results in a weaker conduction [1,2]. Clinical features are characterised by hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo, of combination of thes...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Stapes surgery for otosclerosis can be challenging when the oval window niche is narrow. We analyzed the reliability of CT to evaluate the height of the OWN and propose a quantitative criterion to distinguish normal and narrow OWNs. MATERIALS AND METHODS Fifty-six patients were scheduled for primary stapes surgery and, with available preoperative CT scans, were prospect...