Two-Dimensional Reconstruction of Stapes

The human ossicular chain composes of the malleus, incus, and stapes, although the stapes is the smallest, it plays an important role in the sound transmission in the middle ear acting as a mechanical transformer. The stapedial footplate fits into the vestibular window and separates the inner ear from the middle ear. The mechanical behavior of the footplate and its annular ligament depend critically on their shape and orientation in the vestibular window (Hagr et al. 2004), and the morphological observation of the stapes at high resolution will help us to understand its dynamics (Hagr et al. 2004) and build the finite element analytical model of the middle ear (Sim et al. 2010). The dysplasia of the stapes (such as the aplasia of the footplate superostructure, congenital dehiscence of footplate, even the atresia of the vestibular window), the trauma of the stapes (the fenestration, dislocation, and fracture of the stapedial footplate), et al., usually cause the significance conductive hearing loss, or sensorineural hearing loss, even cerebrospinal fluid leakage and intracranial infection. In otologic surgery, whether the stapes is movable or fixed is a crucial factor in obtaining hearing (Tsuzuki et al. 2006), cases in which stapes footplate was fixated had the worst result in terms of hearing (Aslan et al. 2010).