This study attempts to correlate the relationship between clinical otosclerosis, tinnitus, and stapedectomy surgery. One hundred and thirty-five patients who recently underwent stapedectomy surgery were evaluated to determine the effects upon tinnitus and to determine if there was an association between tinnitus and the pre-operative cochlear reserve, the degree of footplate pathology, and/or the post-operative hearing result.

Diminished cochlear reserve and the post-operative audiometric result had no relationship to the tinnitus symptom. A beneficial effect on tinnitus occurred in 25 per cent of the patients requiring drilling of the stapes footplate.