Certain types of hearing loss can be fixed through surgery. If you want to explore surgery to restore hearing, schedule an evaluation by an audiologist. That doctor can refer you to an Ear, Nose and Throat surgeon if surgery may help improve your hearing.
Here are common surgical procedures that can effectively treat some problems that cause hearing loss.
- Ventilation (or PE) Tube Placement — Ear tubes are commonly placed in the eardrums of children or adults with recurrent middle-ear infections. Fluid in the middle ear can result in hearing loss. This is the most common form of surgery to correct or prevent hearing loss in children.
- Eardrum Repair — The eardrum can be perforated from chronic ear disease or following an accident. Tympanoplasty and ossiculoplasty are two surgical procedures to repair the eardrum.
- Middle-Ear Surgery — Sound is transmitted through the middle ear by a series of bones called the ossicular chain. Disruption of the ossicular chain can cause hearing loss that can be restored through surgery.
- Stapedotomy — Otosclerosis is one example of a middle-ear disease that affects the ossicular chain of tiny bones in the ear. Otosclerosis causes an abnormal growth in the middle ear, which stops ear bones from vibrating in response to sound waves. Restoration of hearing is possible by performing a stapedotomy, in which a hole at the base of the stapes is opened and a prosthesis is placed.
- Mastoidectomy — In people with chronic ear disease, the mastoid bone and air cells may need to be surgically opened with a procedure called a mastoidectomy This procedure is also used to place a cochlear implant in the ear.
