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Middle Ear Cavity

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Comprehensive and Clinical Anatomy of the Middle Ear

Abstract

The middle ear cavity is an irregular air-filled space hollowed out in the center of the temporal bone between the external auditory meatus laterally and the inner ear medially. It lies at the intersection between two important axes: one latero-medial between the external and the internal auditory canals, the other one posteroanterior between the mastoid antrum and the Eustachian tube.

For descriptive purposes, the tympanic cavity may be considered as a box with four walls, a roof, and a floor. Because of the convexity of the medial and lateral walls, the middle ear cavity is constricted at its center. The width of the middle ear cavity is 2 mm at the center, 6 mm superiorly in the attic, and 4 mm inferiorly in the hypotympanum. In the sagittal plane, the middle ear cleft measures about 15 mm both in the vertical and horizontal directions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital Sacre Coeur ORL Chirurgie Cervico - Faciale, Lebanese University, Baabda, Lebanon

    Salah Mansour MD, FRCSC

  2. ORL Chirurgie Cervico - Faciale, Hôpital Trad, Beirut, Lebanon

    Salah Mansour MD, FRCSC

  3. ORL - Chirurgie Cervico - Faciale, University Aix-Marseille Hôpital Nord, Marseille, France

    Jacques Magnan MD, PhD

  4. ORL - Chirurgie Cervico - Faciale, Hôpital Nord, Marseille, France

    Hassan Haidar MD, ABORL

  5. Department of Radiology Middle East Institute of Health, Bsalim Levant Clinics, Fachaerztin fuer Radiologische Diagnostik Lebanese University, Beirut, Lebanon

    Karen Nicolas MD

  6. Department of Radiology, Levant Clinics, Sinn el Fil, Lebanon

    Karen Nicolas MD

  7. Laboratoire d` Anatomie Biomécanique et Organogenèse, Université Libre de Bruxelles Faculté de Médecine, Brussels, Belgium

    Stéphane Louryan MD, PhD

Authors
  1. Salah Mansour MD, FRCSC
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  2. Jacques Magnan MD, PhD
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  3. Hassan Haidar MD, ABORL
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  4. Karen Nicolas MD
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  5. Stéphane Louryan MD, PhD
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Mansour, S., Magnan, J., Haidar, H., Nicolas, K., Louryan, S. (2013). Middle Ear Cavity. In: Comprehensive and Clinical Anatomy of the Middle Ear. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36967-4_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-36967-4_2

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-36966-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-36967-4

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