If a person with otosclerosis performed the Rinne test, he or she would hear the sound when the tuning fork wasplaced against the mastoid process of the temporal bone but not when the tuning fork was placed outside the ear.This is because sound waves can stimulate the inner ear by conduction through bone (bypassing the middle ear)but cannot be transmitted by the middle ear ossicles.In Weber's test the sound will appear louder in the ear withotosclerosis, just as it does in a person with normal hearing who plugs one ear.This is because the brain can paymore attention to sounds coming to the ear by bone conduction when distracting noises from the room areeliminated.
