Otosclerotic stapedial footplate fixation in an 18th century burial.

Fixation of the footplate of the stapes by otosclerosis had been found in the left ear of a probable Spaniard who died about 200 years ago and was buried in the Tuscon Presidio. Previous studies on North and South Dakota American Indian crania of about the same time period did not demonstrate any stapedial fixation in 2,600 burials (4,064 temporal bones), 1,416 of which were over 16 years of age at death. The Tucson burial would indicate that this abnormality can be demonstrated in old interred skeletal material. Our other studies suggest that this disease process was not common in the prehistoric and historic Indian populations of the Dakotas.