Ossicular chain

There are three widely accepted routes by which bone-conducted sound stimulates the cochlea. These are the compres-sional, inertial and osseotympanic theories of bone conduction (12). Compressional bone conduction implies that the cochlear shell is compressed slightly in response of the pressure variation caused by a sound. Inertial bone conduction alludes to a relative motion between the ossicular chain and the temporal bone for low frequency vibrations. The osseotympanic theory denotes a mechanism by which relative movement of the skull, with respect to the mandible, sets up pressure variation in the air present in the auditory meatus. Since perception of microwave pulses are correlated with the capacity to hear high-frequency sound, it rules out inertial or osseotympanic bone conduction as potential mechanisms for microwave acoustic effect. 

Grote J.J. 1987. Reconstruction of the ossicular chain with hydroxyapatite prostheses. Am. J. Otol. 8 396 01. 

Ceravital refers to a number of different compositions of glasses and glass-ceramics that were developed in the 1970s in Germany for biomedical applications. The only field in which Ceravital glass-ceramics are clinically used is in the replacement of the ossicular chain in the middle ear. In this application the mechanical properties of the material are sufficient to support the minimal applied loads. 

Bulk Middle ear prostheses Restore conductive hearing by replacing part of ossicular chain... 

Virtual Endoscopy (Clinical Applications) The Study of the Ossicular Chain 143... 

VE allows visualizing the entire ossicular chain potentially from any point of view. Positioning the virtual endoscope within the external auditory canal, VE displays the long process of incus, the stapes, and the handle of the malleus. Meanwhile, from a point of view located within the ipotympanum VE can easily display the stapes, the lenticular process of incus... 

Danti, S., Stefanini, C., D alessandro, D., Moscato, S., Pietrabissa, A., Petrini, M., Berrettini, S., 2009. Novel biological/biohybrid prostheses for the ossicular chain fabrication feasibility and preliminary functional characterization. Biomed. Microdev. 11, 783—793. 

A 6-year-old boy with transfusion-dependent P-thalassemia developed unilateral hearing loss shortly after low-dose deferoxamine (dose not specified). Ototoxicity was assumed, but the deficit was later found to be conductive and due to bone marrow proliferation within the ossicular chain as a consequence of the disease. 

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