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Hyperacusis after Stapedectomy

Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) | Last Active: May 25 4:53pm | Replies (9)

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@gabriel1984

I've had this problem for 7 months, the doctor doesn't know what to do, he said he's never seen a similar case. he proposed to replace the titanium prosthesis with a Teflon one. I'm desperate and I don't want to go through this intervention to replace the prosthesis because I can lose a lot of the hearing I've gained, but at the same time I feel that I would do anything to get rid of these distortions, I've recovered part of my hearing in vain if its quality is unbearable. distortions are present in almost all perceived sounds, in the car it is terrible, especially when a window is opened. I describe them as the sound of a broken speaker or a radio station not tuned correctly, or like the purring of a cat. Is it something temporary or is it a problem with the prosthesis, too long, too short, out of position...I have also found the symptoms I have in people on other forums who have not had any kind of ear surgery, it is difficult to find the problem and identify where it comes from. it's been 7 months of torment with these symptoms, mostly I stay isolated away from sounds. I regret that I did the operation but at the same time I had no choice because I could no longer hear any kind of conversation. If you have any news about your situation, I await an answer, thank you in advance and all the best!

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Replies to "I've had this problem for 7 months, the doctor doesn't know what to do, he said..."

Hi Gabriel!

Your description of a broken speaker sounds really
similar to mine.

What type of implant do you have? Mine is titanium. It could be that certain implants have a greater risk for this side effect.

On the bright side, after some research, it looks like there might be a solution that wouldn’t involve redoing your stapedectomy. I can’t post links but if you search Pubmed for “Round and Oval Window Reinforcement” you should find it.

Reinforcing the oval window might be lower risk than a new stapedectomy with less downtime. I would ask your surgeon about that!

There are also two schools of thought with hyperacusis: some say to avoid sound, and others say to slowly reintroduce sound in hopes that you might get accustomed to it. Maybe try listening to a podcast each day during your commute at a level where it rarely “crackles” and slowly bring it up to see if that helps?

For me, at this point I’ve just accepted it and learned to live around it. I would say that it should get better and has gotten better for me over time, though I can still hear it.

Talk to you soon!

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