Systematic Review of Ossicular Chain Anatomy: Strategic Planning for Development of Novel Middle Ear Prostheses:

ObjectiveTo systematically review the anatomy of the ossicular chain.Data SourcesGoogle Scholar, PubMed, and otologic textbooks.Review MethodsA systematic literature search was performed on January 26, 2015. Search terms used to discover articles consisted of combinations of 2 keywords. One keyword from both groups was used: [ossicular, ossicle, malleus, incus, stapes] and [morphology, morphometric, anatomy, variation, physiology], yielding more than 50,000 hits. Articles were then screened by title and abstract if they did not contain information relevant to human ossicular chain anatomy. In addition to this search, references of selected articles were studied as well as suggested relevant articles from publication databases. Standard otologic textbooks were screened using the search criteria.ResultsThirty-three sources were selected for use in this review. From these studies, data on the composition, physiology, morphology, and morphometrics were acquired. In addition, any correlations or lack of correl...