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Medical Science Monitor : International... Jun 2023BACKGROUND Otosclerosis is a pathology that interferes with the conduction of vibrations to the inner ear, triggering changes in the auditory ossicles and their...
BACKGROUND Otosclerosis is a pathology that interferes with the conduction of vibrations to the inner ear, triggering changes in the auditory ossicles and their associated joints due to mechanical overload. This study primarily aims to evaluate these overload-induced modifications in the stapes head resulting from the immobilization of the base of the third auditory ossicle in otosclerosis patients. MATERIAL AND METHODS We conducted a comparative analysis of patients undergoing their first surgery for otosclerosis. The test group consisted of 31 patients who underwent stapedotomy between 2020-2021. For comparison, we utilized a control group comprising stapes samples extracted during vestibular schwannoma surgeries via a transcochlear approach. A prospective analysis of bone tissue surface topography and chemical composition was executed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). RESULTS SEM analysis of the stapes head in otosclerosis patients relative to the control group displayed no significant differences in chemical composition or the presence of otosclerotic foci. Nonetheless, various forms of bone tissue surface damage were noted on the stapes head in all otosclerosis patients. Mild changes were evident in 90% of the samples, while small linear bone tissue fractures were observed in 58% of the samples. Furthermore, minor osteophytic changes were detected in 16% of the samples. CONCLUSIONS The immobilization of the stapes base by otosclerotic foci instigates overloads in the incus-stapes joint, leading to the eventual remodeling of the stapes head articular surface.
Topics: Humans; Stapes; Otosclerosis; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Ear Ossicles; Stapes Surgery; Bone and Bones
PubMed: 37337421
DOI: 10.12659/MSM.939679 -
Otolaryngologia Polska = the Polish... May 2020<b>Introduction: </b>Knowledge about the physiology of a healthy middle ear is essential for understanding the activity and mechanics of the ear as well as...
<b>Introduction: </b>Knowledge about the physiology of a healthy middle ear is essential for understanding the activity and mechanics of the ear as well as the basics of ossiculoplasty. Trauma of the epithelial lining of the tympanic cavity as well as the ossicular chain may be the result of chronic inflammation and surgery. Depending on the observed changes of the middle ear lining, there are several types of distinguished chronic inflammatory changes: simple, with cholesteatoma, with the formation of inflammatory granulation tissue, in course of specific diseases. <br><b>Purpose: </b>The aim of the article is presentation of the microstructure and vasculature of the ossicular chain in the Scanning Electron Microscope. Particular attention is drawn to the anatomical aspects of the structure and connections of auditory ossicles as vital elements for reconstruction of the conduction system of the middle ear. <br><b>Material and method: </b>The analysis covered auditory ossicles standardly removed in accordance with the methodology of the investigated surgical procedures. The preparations were evaluated in a scanning electron microscope. <br><b>Results: </b>The exposure of bone surface promotes deep erosion. The advanced process of destruction of bone surface in the case of chronic otitis media correlates with a significant degree of damage to both the lining covering the auditory ossicles and that surrounding articular surfaces. <br><b>Conclusions: </b>(1) The ossicles in the image of the Scanning Electron Microscope are covered with lining. It passes from the surface of the ossicles to the vascular bundles, forming vascular sheaths; (2) Damage to lining continuity on the surface of the auditory ossicles promotes the rapid destruction of bone tissue in the inflammatory process; (3) The dimensions of the individual ossicles are respectively: malleus - 8.36 +/- 0.01, incus - 8.14 +/- 0.0, stapes - 3.23 +/- 0.01 mm. Behavior of the anatomical length of ossicular chain during tympanoplasty appears to be essential to maintaining adequate vibration amplitude of the conductive system of the middle ear.
Topics: Ear Ossicles; Ear, Middle; Female; Humans; Male; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Otitis Media; Tympanoplasty
PubMed: 32636350
DOI: 10.5604/01.3001.0014.1373 -
Advances in Experimental Medicine and... 2013The classical mammalian auditory periphery, i.e., the type of middle ear and coiled cochlea seen in modern therian mammals, did not arise as one unit and did not arise... (Review)
Review
The classical mammalian auditory periphery, i.e., the type of middle ear and coiled cochlea seen in modern therian mammals, did not arise as one unit and did not arise in all mammals. It is also not the only kind of auditory periphery seen in modern mammals. This short review discusses the fact that the constituents of modern mammalian auditory peripheries arose at different times over an extremely long period of evolution (230 million years; Ma). It also attempts to answer questions as to the selective pressures that led to three-ossicle middle ears and the coiled cochlea. Mammalian middle ears arose de novo, without an intermediate, single-ossicle stage. This event was the result of changes in eating habits of ancestral animals, habits that were unrelated to hearing. The coiled cochlea arose only after 60 Ma of mammalian evolution, driven at least partly by a change in cochlear bone structure that improved impedance matching with the middle ear of that time. This change only occurred in the ancestors of therian mammals and not in other mammalian lineages. There is no single constellation of structural features of the auditory periphery that characterizes all mammals and not even all modern mammals.
Topics: Animals; Biological Evolution; Cochlea; Ear Ossicles; Eating; Hearing; Mammals
PubMed: 23716203
DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4614-1590-9_1 -
Journal of Bone and Mineral Research :... Mar 1999Osteopetrosis describes a group of skeletal metabolic diseases of heterogeneous etiology and varied severity that produces a generalized accumulation of skeletal mass,...
Auditory ossicle abnormalities and hearing loss in the toothless (osteopetrotic) mutation in the rat and their improvement after treatment with colony-stimulating factor-1.
Osteopetrosis describes a group of skeletal metabolic diseases of heterogeneous etiology and varied severity that produces a generalized accumulation of skeletal mass, the result of reduced bone resorption. Inherited in a variety of species including humans, the most severe forms are lethal. Among common features are progressive blindness and deafness of controversial etiologies for which there are no universally effective treatments. We have studied the auditory responsiveness and auditory ossicle quantitative histomorphology and temporal bone vasculature in the toothless (tl) rat, a lethal osteopetrotic mutation with few osteoclasts, very low bone turnover, and limited angiogenesis in the axial skeleton. Compared with normal littermates, 3-week-old mutants showed significantly reduced auditory responsiveness, a hearing loss due to abnormalities in both form and tissue composition of the stapes, and little capillary sprouting in the vascular bed of the temporal bone. Treatment of mutants with colony-stimulating factor 1 (CSF-1), known to greatly reduce sclerosis in the axial skeleton, significantly improved hearing, stapedial form and tissue composition, and angiogenesis in the temporal bone. In normal rats, the stapes consisted of 89.3% bone, 9.1% mineralized cartilage, and 0.8% porosity. In osteopetrotic rats, the stapes consisted of 48.3% bone, 35.9% mineralized cartilage, and 15.9% porosity, while after CSF-1 treatment, the bone content increased to 55.2%, cartilage was decreased to 21.7%, and porosity increased to 23.0%, respectively. This is the first demonstration of an auditory abnormality in an osteopetrotic animal mutation and shows that the hearing loss in tl rats can be significantly improved following treatment with CSF-1.
Topics: Animals; Ear Ossicles; Female; Hearing Loss; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Macrophage Colony-Stimulating Factor; Male; Microscopy, Electron; Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; Osteopetrosis; Rats; Rats, Mutant Strains
PubMed: 10027906
DOI: 10.1359/jbmr.1999.14.3.415 -
The Journal of Laryngology and Otology Apr 1968
Topics: Chronic Disease; Ear Diseases; Ear Ossicles; Female; Humans; Infections; Middle Aged; Otitis Media; Otosclerosis; Stapes Mobilization; Stapes Surgery
PubMed: 5653247
DOI: 10.1017/s0022215100068845 -
Otology & Neurotology : Official... Feb 2021Long term results of ossiculoplasty surgery are considered poor with displacement and extrusion amongst the common reasons for failure. Application of 3Dimensional (3D)...
INTRODUCTION
Long term results of ossiculoplasty surgery are considered poor with displacement and extrusion amongst the common reasons for failure. Application of 3Dimensional (3D) printing may help overcome some of these barriers, however digital methods to attain accurate 3D morphological studies of ossicular anatomy are lacking, exacerbated by the limitation of resolution of clinical imaging.
METHODS
20 human cadaveric temporal bones were assessed using micro computed tomography (CT) imaging to demonstrate the lowest resolution required for accurate 3D reconstruction. The bones were then scanned using conebeam CT (125 μm) and helical CT (0.6 mm). 3D reconstruction using clinical imaging techniques with microCT imaging (40 μm resolution) as a reference was assessed. The incus was chosen as the focus of study. Two different methods of 3D printing techniques were assessed.
RESULTS
A minimum resolution of 100 μm was needed for adequate 3D reconstruction of the ossicular chain. Conebeam CT gave the most accurate data on 3D analysis, producing the smallest mean variation in surface topography data relative to microCT (mean difference 0.037 mm, p < 0.001). Though the incus varied in shape in between people, paired matches were identical. Thus, the contralateral side can be used for 3D printing source data if the ipsilateral incus is missing. Laser based 3D printing was superior to extrusion based printing to achieve the resolution demands for 3D printed ossicles.
CONCLUSION
Resolution of modern imaging allows 3D reconstructions and 3D printing of human ossicles with good accuracy, though it is important to pay attention to thresholding during this process.
Topics: Ear Ossicles; Humans; Incus; Precision Medicine; Printing, Three-Dimensional; X-Ray Microtomography
PubMed: 33443358
DOI: 10.1097/MAO.0000000000002928 -
Forensic Science International Jan 2009As the auditory ossicles are difficult to display without harming them in conventional autopsies, lesions of these minute bones and the ossicular chain are regularly...
As the auditory ossicles are difficult to display without harming them in conventional autopsies, lesions of these minute bones and the ossicular chain are regularly missed. In this study, the method of choice in clinical medicine for the examination of such lesions, namely multislice computed tomography, was applied to 100 corpses. The hereby obtained results regarding ossicle luxation and petrous bone fracture indicated that the lesions were not dependant on the amount, but rather on the type of energy inflicted to the head.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Child; Child, Preschool; Ear Ossicles; Forensic Pathology; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Infant; Joint Dislocations; Middle Aged; Petrous Bone; Skull Fractures; Tomography, X-Ray Computed; Wounds and Injuries; Young Adult
PubMed: 19036538
DOI: 10.1016/j.forsciint.2008.10.011 -
Hearing Research Feb 2021The erroneous idea that mammalian three-ossicle middle ears are superior to single-ossicle ones has influenced thinking about prostheses. Evolutionary facts and...
The erroneous idea that mammalian three-ossicle middle ears are superior to single-ossicle ones has influenced thinking about prostheses. Evolutionary facts and measurements indicate that single-ossicle ears are equivalent and more flexible, supporting - in spite of new technological reconstruction techniques - their continued use as prostheses.
Topics: Animals; Ear Ossicles; Ear, Middle; Prostheses and Implants
PubMed: 33310566
DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2020.108144 -
Der Radiologe Aug 2010This article presents a review of diseases of the temporal bone which are relevant for radiologists in routine clinical practice. First the most prominent imaging... (Review)
Review
This article presents a review of diseases of the temporal bone which are relevant for radiologists in routine clinical practice. First the most prominent imaging methods will be briefly summarized with respect to the current state of the art and the most important aspects of cross-sectional anatomy of the temporal bone will be presented. This is followed by the presentation of various inflammatory diseases. Fractures (longitudinal, transverse and mixed fractures), auditory ossicle lesions and contusions of the labyrinth will be discussed in connection with injuries of the temporal bone. Tumors and tumor-like lesions and the clinical symptoms of otosclerosis and malformations will also be discussed. Finally the postoperative use of imaging methods will be presented. Special importance is given to the position of imaging techniques in the diagnostic chain and their evidential value. This is supplemented by special morphological imaging characteristics and aspects of differential diagnostics.
Topics: Adolescent; Adult; Child; Cholesteatoma, Middle Ear; Diagnosis, Differential; Ear; Ear Diseases; Ear Neoplasms; Ear Ossicles; Ear, Inner; Humans; Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Mastoid; Middle Aged; Otitis Media; Otosclerosis; Postoperative Complications; Reference Values; Sensitivity and Specificity; Skull Fractures; Temporal Bone; Tomography, X-Ray Computed
PubMed: 20714835
DOI: 10.1007/s00117-010-2027-4 -
Nihon Jibiinkoka Gakkai Kaiho Oct 1975
Topics: Ear Ossicles; Methods
PubMed: 1240127
DOI: 10.3950/jibiinkoka.78.10sokai_1095