Citation

Pau HW. Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol. 1999; 108(8): 745-749.

Affiliation

Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Medical School, University of Rostock, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, Annals Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10453781

Abstract

In some cases of sudden inner ear hearing loss in ears with a total ossicular replacement prosthesis, the prosthesis has been found to be penetrating the footplate. Some authors have assumed an external pressure increase for this event. In this study I tried to estimate experimentally the pressure needed for perforating a normal footplate in a temporal bone model. From the data I concluded that "cracking" the footplate can hardly be due to 1 major event of increased pressure. On the other hand, different mechanisms making the footplate a "weak spot" must be discussed and further investigated. In those cases, secondary to thinned or even perforated footplates, environmental pressure changes may be dangerous.

Language: en