Variant presentations of “Foramen of Huschke” in seven adult human crania

Introduction Professor Emil Huschke (1797-1858), a German anatomist first described the probability of deficiency in the development of tympanic plate of temporal bone, which was named as “Foramen of Huschke” or foramen tympanicum, which usually to get apposed in adulthood [1, 2]. It, if persistent in adult life, may result in complications like herniation of temporomandibular joint (TMJ), formation of salivary otorrhea, spread of infection or tumor from external auditory canal to the infratemporal fossa and vice versa. There may be other otologic complications also due to inadvertent passage of arthroscope into the external auditory canal during TMJ arthroscopy [2–6]. Previous studies have explored its prevalence in different populations with variations of different developmental deficiencies of tympanic plate of temporal bone, but till date no such data gets available amongst Bengali population from India, till searched for.