Necrosis of the Lenticular Process of the Incus After Stapes Surgery and its Treatment

MRS. S. G. aged 42 was seen on 9.10.58 when she gave a history of bilateral progressive loss of hearing of one year's duration. There was a little scarring of both membrana tympani and she had a bilateral Rinne .negative deafness. Audiometry confirmed that she had a heaririglqss^of 40 decibels in the speech frequencies in the left ear and 45 decibels in the right ear. A diagnosis of ^tosclerosis was made and she was listed for left stapedial mobilization as the left membrana tympani was less scarred than the right. At operation on 24.1.59 the membrana tympani was slightly torn in reflecting the flap. Attempts at mobilizing the stapes through its neck succeeded only in fracturing both crura. The head and crura of the stapes were removed and a footplate fenestration (Rosen, 1958) was performed in a vain attempt to obtain some improvement in hearing. again on hearing was poor, she had a Rinne negative deafness when tested with tuning forks between cycles and 2048 cycles and the Weber was lateralized to the left.