Oval Window and Round Window Surgery in Extensive Otosclerosis: A Preliminary Report

The conquest of hearing loss due to otosclerosis is one of the most fascinating and unfinished parts of otology. The unsolved problems of otosclerosis call for continued search for medical and surgical methods of alleviating the handicap caused by this disease. It is the purpose of this paper to present a method of opening the oval and round windows in cases of extensive otosclerosis. Oval Window Surgical Techniques Stapes mobilization as proposed by Rosen 1 was a method of fracture through the otosclerotic focus of the oval window by pressure through the head and crura of the stapes. Later footplate techniques developed by a number of surgeons have made it possible to mobilize the majority of otosclerotically fixed footplates. There still remain, however, those patients with extensive otosclerosis in whom the thickness of the footplate is so great that it cannot be mobilized with any of the currently used needle,