A stapedectomy is surgery to treat hearing loss caused by otosclerosis. This condition affects your hearing by damaging your stapes, a tiny U-shaped bone in your middle ear. Your stapes helps you hear by sending sound waves from your middle ear to your inner ear. This condition happens when your stape fuses with surrounding bone tissue, losing the flexibility it needs to transmit sound waves from your middle ear to your inner ear. If the stapes footplate is fixed in position, rather than being normally mobile, the result is a conductive hearing loss. There are two major causes of stapes fixation. The first is a disease process of abnormal mineralization of the temporal bone called otosclerosis. The second is a congenital malformation of the stapes.
Other possible otosclerosis symptoms include:
- Balance problems.
- Vertigo.
- Tinnitus (ringing in your ears).
- Dizziness.