title: Findings at exploratory tympanotomy for conductive hearing loss.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Despite advances in imaging and other diagnostic tests, it is often impossible to establish with confidence a pre-operative diagnosis in a patient with a conductive hearing loss.
  
  
  METHODS
  We studied a series of 340 exploratory tympanotomies for conductive hearing loss carried out by a single surgeon.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most common operative diagnosis was otosclerosis (n = 164, 48.2 per cent). Ossicular discontinuity was found more commonly than previously reported (n = 103, 30.3 per cent). A small but significant number of patients were found to have cholesteatoma (n = 7.2 per cent).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This information is of value when discussing potential findings at surgery for conductive hearing loss. While otosclerosis is the commonest finding in such cases, a significant number of patients have defects of the ossicular chain.
authors: Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. gxrobertson@gmail.com
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Robertson
authors: R
authors: R
authors: Mills
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002648:Child; D002781:Cholesteatoma / Q000150:complications*; D004429:Ear Ossicles / Q000293:injuries*; D005260:Female; D006314:Hearing Loss, Conductive / Q000209:etiology* / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010040:Otosclerosis / Q000150:complications*; D011300:Preoperative Care; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014432:Tympanic Membrane / Q000601:surgery*; D055815:Young Adult