Fenestration Operation for Otosclerosis, 1947

Warning: contains graphic surgical content.

This color, silent film uses a combination of illustrations, animation, live action, and descriptive intertitle cards to document a case of fenestration surgery on a twenty-six year old woman suffering from otosclerosis, a condition that causes abnormal bone growth in the ear. Otosclerosis is described as being the most important cause of progressive conduction deafness in early and middle adult life. The patient is presented as having progressive deafness for six years and wearing a hearing aid for one year. The fenestration surgery severs the bones that comprise the ossicular chain and creates a window (fenestra) into the labyrinth of the ear, thus connecting the ear drum membrane to the new window by a plastic operation. Once completed, she no longer needs a hearing aid. A three year follow up shows the patient still has functional hearing. The film notes that fenestration was only recommended in selected cases of otosclerosis and that the degree of hearing restored varied, never reaching normal.

Passed by the Committee on Medical Motion Pictures, American College of Surgeons, 1950.

By George E. Shambaugh, Jr. MD, Northwestern University Medical School. Endoscopic Photography by Paul Holinger, MD, Chicago. Produced by Mervin LaRue.