Hearing aids and otosclerosis.

The purpose of this article on the use of hearing aids in patients with otosclerosis is to emphasize that all otosclerosis patients cannot be assumed to be good users of hearing aid amplification. Patients with losses of 60 dB or less and with purely conductive lesions may be able to use aids well. Individuals with mixed-type impairments due to otosclerosis may have significant problems utilizing amplification. These cases demonstrate the use of hearing aid amplification in patients with mixed-type hearing impairment due to otosclerosis. This is a very different group of patients from the group with a pure conductive lesion, in which there is little problem in fitting a hearing aid, provided that the instrument has sufficient power and gain to override the loss. A special subgroup of patients who have far-advanced otosclerosis and have successful stapes surgery to correct the conductive component of their hearing loss present a unique problem. They may initially suffer from severe recruitment requiring patience, special training and compression-type hearing aids.