AS IN THE last few years, otosclerosis and its surgical treatment continue to occupy a dominant position in the literature on chronic progressive deafness, with Ménière's disease in second place. The literature also reflects an increasing interest in the etiology and early diagnosis of deafness in very young children.
OTOSCLEROSIS
Anson1 describes in detail the embryology of the fissula ante fenestram, which lies immediately anterior to the oval window. It contains a chondromatous mass which sometimes is replaced by vascular bone. This histological instability is a circumstance which renders the fissular region subject to pathological change, the vestibular window vulnerable to invasion, and the stapes subject to fixation within its fenestra.Bast2 made serial sections of petrous bones obtained at autopsy in 38 cases and studied the structure of the fissular area. Many of the bony changes observed were attempts to rebuild that part of the otic capsule