Introduction: Foreign bodies in the external auditory canal are fairly common, and tend to be seeds, toys, or insects. However, foreign bodies in the middle ear are rarer, and are generally accidental or iatrogenic. Although there are numerous reports regarding fascinating foreign bodies in the ear, the same cannot be said about foreign bodies in the Eustachian tube (ET).   Case Report: A 20-ye...

We humans hear the way we do because of at least three major forces. The first is phylogeny, the evolutionary changes in the auditory system since its beginnings. Another is embryology, the development of the system in each individual before birth. Finally, there is the biologically determined auditory mechanism we are born with and our interaction with the environment in early postnatal life. ...

In the last decade, statins became widely used drugs in hypercholesterolemia treatment. Several studies have demonstrated that statins may also be successfully administered in the treatment of osteoporosis. There are, however, no reports regarding the effect of statins on heterotopic ossification (HO). In this paper, we examined the influence of fluvastatin on heterotopically induced bone forma...

One of the most amazing transitions and innovations during the evolution of mammals was the formation of a novel jaw joint and the incorporation of the original jaw joint into the middle ear to create the unique mammalian three bone/ossicle ear. In this review, we look at the key steps that led to this change and other unusual features of the middle ear and how developmental biology has been pr...

There is little or no information about the distribution of elastic fibers in the human fetal head. We examined this issue in 15 late-stage fetuses (crown-rump length, 220-320 mm) using aldehyde-fuchsin and elastica-Masson staining, and we used the arterial wall elastic laminae and external ear cartilages as positive staining controls. The posterior pharyngeal wall, as well as the ligaments con...

Tissue engineering is attempting to recreate the complexity of living tissues. In order to test a variety of scaffolds or cells that are constantly being developed, we describe here a model where tissue engineering of bone in a non-osseous environment at subcutaneous thoracic site of DA rats generates. In this model, cell - matix interactions can mimic the normal cascade of bone development int...