Otologic injury associated with fatal and nonfatal lightning strikes has been sporadically reported in the literature. The most common acoustic insult is a conductive hearing loss secondary to rupture of the tympanic membrane. Although conjecture has been made of the theoretic possibility of ossicular injury from lightning strike, to our knowledge, none has been demonstrated intraoperatively or...

The use of alloplastic materials in ossicular reconstruction has a long history. However, many new materials have been described and become commercially available without any evidence that they are superior to the existing ones. The aim of the present literature review is to understand why changes in materials used for ossicular reconstruction have occurred. The literature review was conducted ...

The hypertrophied malleus in the middle ear of some golden moles has been assumed to be an adaptation for sensing substrate vibrations by inertial bone conduction, but this has never been conclusively demonstrated. The Cape golden mole (Chrysochloris asiatica) exhibits this anatomical specialization, and the dynamic properties of its middle ear response to vibrations were the subjects of this s...

Nineteen cases of ossicular chain separation and ossicular dislocation due to head injury were presented. These cases were operated at an early stage after the trauma. The malleus was almost always involved in ossicular chain injury, while the incus was involved in 42% of our cases. The stapes was involved in 21%. The incudo-mallear joint is always separated while the incudo-stapedial joint is ...

OBJECTIVE To evaluate and compare the audiometric outcomes of ossicular reconstruction with titanium prosthesis and autologous material. STUDY DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. SETTING Tertiary referral center. SUBJECTS AND METHODS Audiometric results of consecutive patients who performed ossiculoplasty with titanium prosthesis (n = 43) or autologous material (n = 48), from October 2008 ...