{"id":3024,"date":"2020-01-21T00:04:08","date_gmt":"2020-01-21T08:04:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/to-fix-hearing-loss-patient-follows-department-chair-to-keck-medicine\/"},"modified":"2025-10-23T13:32:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-23T20:32:47","slug":"to-fix-hearing-loss-patient-follows-department-chair-to-keck-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/keck.usc.edu\/news\/to-fix-hearing-loss-patient-follows-department-chair-to-keck-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"To fix hearing loss, patient follows department chair to Keck Medicine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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\n\n \n Press Release<\/span>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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To fix hearing loss, patient follows department chair to Keck Medicine<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
\n \n January 21, 2020<\/span>\n <\/div>\n \n \n
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As a husband and father, an emergency medicine phy<\/span>sician and volunteer medic\u00a0<\/span>with the San Luis Obispo Sheri\ufb00 \u2019s O\ufb03ce Special Enforcement Detail, Kristopher Lyon, MD, had an increasingly busy life. And a noisy one.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Then one day he couldn\u2019t hear his wife, Rachel May, speaking as they drove in the car, and he got worried. The diagnosis deepened his concerns: otosclerosis.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Derive<\/span>d from the Greek words for ear<\/span>(\u201coto\u201d) and<\/span>\u00a0hard (\u201cscler-o\u201d), otosclerosis<\/span>\u00a0is an a<\/span>bnormal bone growth that fuses\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>bones of the inner ear together in\u00a0<\/span>an immovable mass, preventing the transmission of sound. The progressive hearin<\/span>g loss typically begins in the\u00a0<\/span>early 20s, but many people don\u2019t become aware un<\/span>til their 40s or 50s. Lyon was\u00a0<\/span>only 35.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Lyon, wh<\/span>o has no known family history\u00a0<\/span>of otosclerosis, was determined to identify \u201cthe best doctor for the job,\u201d he said. He found John S. Oghalai, MD, an internationally recognized otolaryngologist with expertise in ear and skull base surgery and now chair of the USC Tina and Rick Caruso Department of Otolaryngology \u2013 Head & Neck Surgery.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The good news was that Lyon had the form of otosclerosis in which the bone overgrowth immobilizes the stapes bone in the middle ear, causing conductive hearing loss. In a second, more di\ufb03cult-to-treat form, the ossi\ufb01ed bone a\ufb00ects the entire bone around the cochlea, requiring a cochlear implant. \u201cThat diagnosis meant we could treat him with hearing aids or surgery,\u201d Oghalai said, \u201cboth of which help bypass the \ufb01xation spot and restore hearing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Lyon \ufb01rst tried a hearing aid in his right ear, unsure how it would a\ufb00ect his work and family life. He soon discovered \u201cthere\u2019s no good method of using a stethoscope with one bad ear and one good ear,\u201d he said. And if he took his hearing aid out at night when he slept, he couldn\u2019t hear his son, Owen.<\/span><\/p>\n

So\u00a0Ly<\/span>on opted for a stapedectomy, an<\/span>\u00a0intricate outpatient procedure done under local or general anesthesia. \u201cIt\u2019s one of the most delicate surgeries that ENT (ear, nose and throat) physicians do,\u201d Oghalai said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact,<\/span>\u00a0most ENT physicians prefer to\u00a0<\/span>refer their patients to expert surgeons like\u00a0Oghala<\/span>i. Working with a high-powered\u00a0<\/span>operating microscope, he removed the arch of the stapes bone in Lyon\u2019s right ear. He then used\u00a0<\/span>a laser to make a tiny (.7 mm)\u00a0<\/span>hole an<\/span>d secure a lightweight titanium<\/span>\u00a0prosthesis .6 mm in diameter.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lyon could hear out of his right ear again, but his left ear was already showing signs of trouble. He hoped he could beat the odds. Yet within several months, the precipitous hearing loss was too severe to ignore.<\/span><\/p>\n

By then,<\/span>\u00a0both men\u2019s lives had changed.\u00a0<\/span>Lyon and May had a second son, Noah.\u00a0Oghalai\u00a0had joined the team at the USC Caruso Department of Otolaryngology \u2013 Head &\u00a0<\/span>Neck Surgery, drawn, he said,\u00a0<\/span>by \u201cthe most enthusiastic and committed group of\u00a0fac<\/span>ulty, sta\ufb00 and trainees I have\u00a0<\/span>ever seen.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That was all Lyon needed to know. His con\ufb01dence in USC had another, family origin: His parents met at and graduated from the university. His father, the late attorney and conservationist Roger Lyon, was an All-American swimmer for USC, while his mother, Susan Briles Lyon, majored in art history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once again, Lyon opted \ufb01rst for a hearing aid in his left ear, waiting until his sons got a bit older<\/span>. This past May, Lyon, now 39,\u00a0<\/span>had his second stapedectomy, this time at Keck Hospital of USC.<\/span><\/p>\n

Following the hour-long procedure,\u00a0Oghalai\u00a0packed Lyon\u2019s ear to protect the ear drum during<\/span>\u00a0recovery. When Lyon returned\u00a0<\/span>to USC<\/span>\u00a0a week later,\u00a0Oghalai\u00a0removed\u00a0<\/span>the pack<\/span>ing. The sound, says Lyon, was\u00a0<\/span>\u201cquite loud.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

For Oghalai, the procedure also is a source of satisfaction. This form of hearing loss can actually be \ufb01xed. \u201cYou can completely restore a sense that was lost,\u201d he said, \u201cand for most patients, their hearing is like it was when they were kids.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Because oto<\/span>sclerosis symptoms can be\u00a0<\/span>confused with age-related hearing loss,<\/span>\u00a0Oghalai\u00a0suggests getting a hearing test for a proper diagnosis.<\/span><\/p>\n

With his hearing fully restored, Lyon is among\u00a0Oghalai\u2019s\u00a0many happy patients.\u00a0 He can pick up subtle conversations, even in \ufb01eld training sessions and a busy emergency room. When he spends time at the family\u2019s property near San Luis Obispo, every word \u2014 or moo \u2014 that\u2019s said, he can pick up. Before he had the procedure, his youngest son learned to speak louder. Now, when Noah turns up the volume, his dad can say, \u201cIt\u2019s ok, buddy. You don\u2019t have to yell.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2014 Candace Pearson<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":168,"featured_media":3026,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[628],"class_list":["post-3024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-usc-caruso-department-of-otolaryngology-head-and-neck-surgery"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTo fix hearing loss, patient follows department chair to Keck Medicine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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