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Noise Pollution and Control
Published in Subhash Verma, Varinder S. Kanwar, Siby John, Environmental Engineering, 2022
Subhash Verma, Varinder S. Kanwar, Siby John
Damage to the human ear can occur in several ways. First, very loud impulse noises can burst the eardrum, causing mostly temporary loss of hearing, although frequently torn eardrums heal poorly, resulting in permanent damage. The bones in the middle ear are not usually damaged by loud sounds, although they can be hurt by infections. Because our sense of balance depends very much on the middle ear, an infection in that area can be debilitating. Finally, the most significant and permanent damage can occur to the hair cells in the inner ear. Very loud sounds will stun these hair cells and cause them to cease functioning. Most of the time this is a temporary condition and time will heal the damage. Unfortunately, if the injury to the inner ear is prolonged, damage can be permanent. This damage cannot be repaired by an operation or corrected by hearing aids. It is this permanent damage to young people, inflicted by loud music, that is the most frequent and insidious. However, loud noise does more than cause permanent hearing damage.
Designing for Head and Neck Anatomy
Published in Karen L. LaBat, Karen S. Ryan, Human Body, 2019
The anatomical features of the middle and internal ear are very delicate. When the mechanical energy transmitted through the ear drum and these tiny bones is excessive, as with long duration exposure to loud noises, or a single exposure to an extremely loud noise, the sensory cells of the inner ear can be permanently damaged. Therefore, protecting hearing in loud environments is important. A key approach is to prevent violent or excessive vibrations from reaching the tympanic membrane. In industrial settings, solid molded ear muffs that totally cover and seal around the external ear may be most effective. Less visibly obvious protection, ear plugs worn in the external acoustic meatus, may safeguard hearing from lower intensity noise. Protective devices that are inserted into the ear canal may be off-the-shelf or custom fit. The effectiveness of both types of devices depends on a good fit as well as the materials selected to block the sound vibrations. Sound insulating materials that incorporate dead air space, like foams, are often the materials of choice.
Disorders of Hearing
Published in Anthony N. Nicholson, The Neurosciences and the Practice of Aviation Medicine, 2017
Linda M. Luxon, Ronald Hinchcliffe
The treatment of acute otitis media requires pain relief, re-establishment of eustachian tube function using nasal drops, inhalations or decongestants, mucolytics and the prescription of systemic antibiotics. The drug of choice is amoxycillin or, in cases of sensitivity to penicillin, erythromycin. Myringotomy is indicated if the drum is bulging. In recurrent acute otitis media, a focus of infection within the upper respiratory tract should be sought, while persistent otitis media with effusion requires the exclusion of naspharyngeal malignancy (Ho et al., 2008). The aim of treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media is to eliminate infection using antibiotics, and, when the ear is healthy, repair aural damage such as a perforated ear drum or damage to the ossicles, which may prevent reinfection and improve sound transmission (Robinson, 1998; Raglan, 2003). Conductive hearing loss caused by otosclerosis or the hereditary osseous dysplasias may be managed conservatively using hearing aids, or surgically by stapedectomy. The procedure carries a small risk of complication of late sudden sensorineural hearing loss, and for this reason stapedectomy has historically not been undertaken in both ears, although recent work has shown more promising results (Kujala et al., 2008).
Semi-automatic 3D reconstruction of middle and inner ear structures using CBCT
Published in Computer Methods in Biomechanics and Biomedical Engineering: Imaging & Visualization, 2023
Florian Beguet, Thierry Cresson, Mathieu Schmittbuhl, Cédric Doucet, David Camirand, Philippe Harris, Jean-Luc Mari, Jacques de Guise
The middle ear is a space filled with air located in the temporal bone between the outer ear and the inner ear. It contains a chain consisting of three movable ossicles: the malleus, the incus (Figure 1b) and the stapes (Figure 1c). The vibrations of the air captured by the eardrum are amplified along the ossicular chain and then transmitted to the inner ear via the oval window. The ossicles are eminently complex structures especially the stapes where a list of 14 probative measures has been determined (Farahani and Nooranipour 2008). In addition, each of these structures can be the cause of many hearing problems (Nager 1993).