Clinical Otosclerosis, Prevalence Estimates and Spontaneous Progress

Abstract

This retrospective study was performed in order to estimate the prevalence of clinical otosclerosis as a function of age and gender, characterize the hearing level in otosclerosis and describe the spontaneous progress of the disease as a function of age. Clinically based samples were obtained from an audiological department, including 556 subjects: n=166 (30%) males and n=390 (70%) females with a median age of 75 years (range 22-95 years) at the time of examination. A subdivision of the sample into 3 age-bands, 20-39 years (n=39), 40-59 years (n