Conductive hearing loss

Any disease process which interferes with the conduction of sound to reach cochlea causes conductive hearing loss.

The lesion can lie in any of the following areas;

  • External ear
  • Typmanic membrane
  • Middle ear
  • Ossicles upto stapediovestibular joint

Characteristics:

The characteristics of conductive hearing loss are;

  1. Negative Rinne teat i.e.BC>AC
  2. Weber lateralized to poorer ear
  3. Normal absolute bone conduction
  4. Low frequencies affected more
  5. Speech discrimination is good
  6. Loss is not more than 60dB

Aetiology:

The cause may be congenital or acquired:

Congenital causes:

  • Meatal atresia
  • Fixation of stapes footplate
  • Fixation of malleus head
  • Ossicular discontinuity

Acquired causes:

  • Obstruction of ear canal
  • Perforation of tympanic membrane
  • Fluid in middle ear
  • Mass in middle ear
  • Fixation of ossicles

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