Inner Ear Surgery - Fenestration Surgery

Why Do People Get Inner Ear Surgery?

Undergoing inner ear operations like fenestration is mainly to treat hearing loss that did not get better with minimally invasive treatments. Specific indications include the following:

• Otosclerosis: It is a condition where a person experiences hearing loss due to an abnormal growth of the stapes bone (of the middle ear). Fenestration can bypass the affected region, letting sounds reach the inner ear more effectively.
• Chronic ear functions: Hearing may also be impacted by chronic ear infections due to the resulting scarring and damage. Surgery can remove the scar tissue or bypass the damaged areas.
• Congenital ear abnormalities: Surgery might be used to treat people who are born with ear abnormalities that influence their hearing.
• Improve hearing: Lastly, it may be used to improve hearing when the other treatment options have failed. 

The final decision of whether the procedure would be apt to manage your condition will be taken by the surgeon after a thorough evaluation.

Anatomy Of The Human Ear

The human ear has three parts - the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear. Each part has a crucial role to play in your process of hearing by capturing, amplifying, and translating sound waves into electrical signals for the brain to understand.

• The outer ear: The auricle (pinna) is the visible part that captures sound waves from the environment and directs them to the ear canal. The ear canal (external auditory canal) is a tube-like structure that leads sound waves to the eardrum, which is a part of the middle ear.
• The middle ear: The eardrum (tympanic membrane) is a thin membrane that vibrates as sound waves reach it, converting sound energy into mechanical vibrations. These vibrations are now amplified and transmitted to the inner ear by ossicles, the three tiny bones comprising the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil), and stapes (stirrup). There is also an eustachian tube (a canal) that connects the middle ear with the throat (pharynx) and equalizes air pressure on both sides of the eardrum. 
• The inner ear: There is a snail-shaped cochlea, the fluid-filled organ that transforms mechanical vibrations into electrical signals through tiny hair cells for the auditory nerve to send to the brain. There are also semicircular canals (labyrinthine) that tell the brain which direction your head is moving and help maintain balance.
• Additional components: The auditory or vestibulocochlear nerve transfers electrical signals from the cochlea to the brain to allow the perception of sound.  Then there are round and oval windows, membranes that separate the middle and inner ears, and help in the transmission of vibrations to the cochlea.

The anatomy of the ear is such that it efficiently captures sound waves, converts them into mechanical and electrical signals, and transfers them to the brain for interpretation. This allows us to hear and understand sounds around us and also maintain balance and spatial orientation.

Different Types Of Inner Ear Surgery

The table below explains the different types of inner ear surgery:

Each of the above-mentioned ear surgeries addresses varying issues relating to hearing loss or other conditions affecting the ear.