Otosclerosis is a disease of the otic capsule, where the mature bone is reabsorbed and replaced by spongy immature vascular bone. There are certain pre-determined sites in the otic capsule where a spongy new bone is laid down. If the otosclerotic focus is in the foot plate and/or in adjoining areas and affects the mobility of the foot plate, resulting in conductive deafness, then the condition is clinically known as otosclerosis.
Valsalva , in 1735, described ankylosis of stapes margins on an autopsy of a deaf patient. Toynbee, in 1845, on the basis of 1690 ear dissections, concluded that "osseous ankylosis of the stapes to the fenestra ovalis was one of the common causes of deafness.” Politzer was first to describe the histopathology of Otosclerosis as a primary disease of the otic capsule, not attributed to interstitial middle ear catarrh as previously assumed. Bezold, Siebenmann and…
