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Susan, a 28-year-old woman, was experiencing a ringing in her ears, hearing loss

ID: 3512855 • Letter: S

Question

Susan, a 28-year-old woman, was experiencing a ringing in her ears, hearing loss, and an occasional feeling that the room was spinning. She went to a specialist and, after ruling out otitis media and Meniere's disease, was told that she had otosclerosis. The specialist said that she would need a hearing aid and likely surgery. After leaving this physician, she went to an optometrist who told her that she needed new glasses for her myopia, or alternatively she could go in for LASIK surgery. Susan laughed ruefully and agreed to seek that procedure.

Some of the new terms and concepts you will encounter include:

Middle-ear and inner-ear structures involved in hearing and equilibrium

Eye structure and function in focusing and vision

Susan had a ringing in her ears and a feeling that the room was spinning.

What are the medical terms for these conditions?

What portion of the ear is affected?

Susan was told she had otosclerosis and would need surgery.

What is otosclerosis, and how does it impair hearing?

Susan was told she would need to use a hearing aid.

What type of hearing loss does Susan have?

How would a hearing aid help her?

Susan had myopia and was told to either get new glasses or have LASIK surgery.

What kind of lenses does she need to correct for myopia?

What is LASIK, and how would it correct her myopia?

Explanation / Answer

Medical terms first of all for middle ear are the ear ossicles ( Malleus ,Incus and Stapes)

Inner ear - Vestibule , Semicircular canals , Cochlea , Utricle and Saccule

Vision - Cornea and lens

Focus and image formation - Retina

Ringing in ears - Tinnitus

Inner ear is mainly affected in otosclerosis .

It is defined as primary disease of bony labyrinth in which one or more foci of irregularly laid spongy bone replace part of normally dense endochondral bone.

It impairs hearing by Stapes fixation resulting in loss of transmission of sound to the oval window .

Hearing loss is bilateral conductive hearing loss .

Hearing aid or prosthesis like Teflon piston can be used to between oval window and Incus .

For myopia we need concave glasses or divergent lenses.

LASIK - Laser assisted in situ keratomileusis

It helps in correction of refractive error by altering the curvature of cornea .