VISUALIZATION OF THE MIDDLE EAR WITH HIGH RESOLUTION COMPUTED TOMOGRAPHY AND SUPERFINE FIBEROPTIC VIDEOMICROENDOSCOPY
T. Karhuketo, P. Dastidar, H Puhakka
Tampere University Hospital
Tampere, FINLAND
Ten temporal bone blocks were dissected from lately succumbed patients. A Superfine fiberoptic videomicroendoscope (SFV) was introduced through the Eustachian tube into the middle ear and the anatomical structures were visualized. The cadaver temporal bone blocks were also studied with high resolution computerized tomography (RRCT). An axial spiral HRCT images were used to acquire 2D and 3D reconstruction in coronal, sagittal and intermediate planes.
HRCT gained better results with 12 anatomical structures. SFV visualized 13 anatomical structures. HRCT and SFV were equally efficient with 1 anatomical structure and 9 (26 %) different anatomical structures could not be visualized with either method. If HRCT visualized well, the images of SFV were poor and vise versa.
SFV can offer topographic anatomical information of the middle ear structures while HRCT gives cross-sectional anatomy images. The different types of information of the middle ear of the two imaging technologies supplement each other. The middle ear HRCT and SFV together improve the diagnostics in-patients with external ear canal atresia.