The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Ostosclerosis: women at greater risk

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Aug 23, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Ostosclerosis: women at greater risk

M. Dinesh Varma

Single most common curable form of deafness: expert

CHENNAI : Hearing loss due to ostosclerosis, a condition of the middle ear, has been found to affect twice as many women as men.

Ostosclerosis, the exact cause of which is unknown, is estimated to affect between one and two of every 100 persons in the country and occurs usually in the 15-35 age group. The condition sometimes manifests itself in younger children. In all cases, hearing loss is the main symptom.

"Ostosclerosis is the single most common form of curable deafness", said Ravi Ramalingam, ENT surgeon at KKR ENT Hospital and Research Institute.

The condition is common in southern States as well as West Bengal and Orissa. Ostosclerosis chiefly affects the tiny stapes bone and gradually erodes hearing. For normal hearing, the ossicles need to be able to move freely in response to sound waves.

When abnormal bone material grows around the stapes, it reduces the amount of sound that is transferred to the cochlea. In most cases, only the stapes is affected but sometimes the disease could also affect the bony shell of the cochlea.

Hereditary factors appear to influence predisoposition for ostosclerosis, with about 2 to 3 patients having other family members with the condition.

The hearing loss may remain mild or more could aggravate. Untreated, the condition could result in deafness. Other associated symptoms, apart from hearing loss, include tinnitus (abnormal noise generated inside the ear), paracusis (tendency to hear better in noisy surroundings) and vertigo (giddiness). The treatment includes hearing aids and surgery.

It is common for most patients to carry on with a mild to moderate hearing deficit. In some patients, the flare-up of symptoms occurs during pregnancy. Surgery is a simple procedure with no external cuts or scars and fully restores hearing.

The surgeon's prowess can produce success rates as high as 90 per cent. Now, the advent of lasers to operate on the smallest bone in the human system — stapes -- has boosted the success rates to around 98 per cent, said Dr. Ravi.

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