hello my name is dr. ed Norton Thoreau or dr. ent I'm in Otolaryngology had a neck surgeon
I'm here today to review scenes from the hit TV show Grey's Anatomy season 6 episode 16 in this
particular episode a patient comes in who happens to be quite hard of hearing but as we shall see it
is a curable form of hearing loss please maybe know actually my mother is almost completely
deaf a fact she refuses to accept which is why she won't learn sign language or get a hearing aid so
we yell don't talk to her just telling them what happened she's don't like her again this type of
interaction is quite accurately portrayed when communicating with a hard of hearing individual
who also refuses to acknowledge that they have hearing loss or refuses to wear it devices to
improve hearing visit in Minnesota zygomatic process and humans how much love to the whole
area ok run ahead and face ETL get to Sloan and Shepherd she's got a ruptured tendon in her knee
the patient suffered from head trauma and as such a CT scan has been ordered to evaluate for any
fractures the patient may have sustained for the testosterone this is nonsense cancer we know for
sure she's deaf yeah how'd you know that she's got a nose for osis abnormal bone loss in the middle
ear if I just move on she'll be over here again although possible it's highly improbable that
one can definitely diagnose otosclerosis from a CT scan which by the way is accurately portrayed
showing the right anatomical region wait you can restore her hearing yeah but she's been deaf for
years yeah she doesn't have to be just because what'd I just say she doesn't have to be deaf
anymore I can fix it I'm that good Bota sclerosis is when the bones of the middle ear become frozen
providing sound conduction from the eardrum to the cochlea from occurring one would also
obtain a formal hearing test to evaluate for a type of hearing loss called conductive hearing
loss which we clinch the diagnosis be serious all this time I just needed to make her go to
the doctor that doesn't matter now what matters is that dr. Sloan can do the surgery right after
I operate on the knee that car accident might have been the best thing that ever happened
to patients with hearing loss suffering from otosclerosis can absolutely have their hearing
restored but it requires not only removing the affected middle ear bones specifically the stay
piece but also replacing it with an implant this procedure is called a state B data me
I should also mention that otosclerosis is a hereditary condition that is genetically
transferred through future generations in an autosomal dominant fashion indeed the
patient's daughter may also develop this type of hearing loss given the surgery is elective it is
highly doubtful that a knee surgery and a state B data me both would be performed at the same
time as suggested here to surgery the hearing improvement depicted in the scene is accurately
portrayed and can truly be that dramatic now that said the patient often has pointment and packing
material within the ear canal immediately after surgery which would prevent hearing from being
dist romantically improved but after a week or two once it all comes out then yes the hearing
improvement can be this dramatic also when otosclerosis surgery is performed in both ears
are affected as is apparent in this patient the surgeon typically operates on the worse hearing
ear first than the opposite ear at some later date rarely if ever would one perform surgery
on both ears at the same time at the end of the day I would not expect the actors and directors
to get every detail right but in spite of a few factual lapses and several dramatic exaggerations
the scenes depicted in this episode of Grey's Anatomy are overall quite accurately portrayed