Skip to main content
AAO-HNSF 2025 Annual Meeting & OTO EXPO Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.

Panel Presentations

Otology/Neurotology

Conductive Hearing Loss, It's Not Always Otosclerosis

Saturday, October 11, 2025
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT
Location: 244
CME/MOC Credit: 1
Disclosure(s):
Rex S. Haberman, MD, II:

faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

Alexander G. Bien, MD:

faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION: A negative middle ear exploration for otosclerosis is disappointing for the patient and surgeon alike. Perhaps worse is finding a pathology that the team is not prepared to manage or for which surgery is contraindicated. Accordingly, this panel presentation will equip clinicians to successfully distinguish and manage the range of “can’t miss” diagnoses that mimic otosclerosis. Experienced panelists will present clinical cases united by a chief complaint of conductive hearing loss. Cases will include acquired and congenital pathologies (e.g., ossicular fixation, discontinuities, x-linked stapes gusher), occult chronic otitis media, third window lesions (e.g., canal dehiscence and enlarged vestibular aqueduct), and pseudo-conductive hearing loss. Revision ossiculoplasty and reasons for failure will also be presented. Panelists will discuss, debate, and illustrate key elements of the history, physical exam, and audiometric test battery that point to specific diagnostic possibilities. They will detail their approaches to imaging acquisition and interpretation and will discuss a systematic approach to middle ear exploration when the diagnosis remains ambiguous. Evidence-based surgical and non-surgical management strategies for conductive hearing loss will be presented for each case, along with expected outcomes and potential complications.

Learning Objectives:

  1. Recognize the range of causes of conductive hearing loss that mimic otosclerosis
  2. Differentiate ossicular pathology from third window lesions based on key audiometric and imaging features
  3. Identify instances when surgical intervention is and is not warranted for conductive hearing loss, and indications for revision ossiculoplasty

    Moderator(s)

  • Rex S. Haberman, II, MD

    Associate Professor
    University of Florida College of Medicine
    Gainesville, FL, United States

    Disclosure(s):

    faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.

    • Panelist(s)

  • Elizabeth A. Kelly, MD

    Neurotologist
    Boys Town National Research Hospital
    Elkhorn, Nebraska, United States

    Disclosure information not submitted.

  • OA

    Oliver F. Adunka, MD, MBA, FACS

    Professor
    The Ohio State University
    Columbus, Ohio, United States

    Disclosure information not submitted.

  • Alexander G. Bien, MD

    Associate Professor
    University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center
    Oklahoma City, OK, United States

    Disclosure(s):

    faculty for this accredited education activity has no relationship(s) with ineligible companies to disclose.