Allograft stapes surgery for conductive hearing loss in patients with ossicular chain anomalies.

An allograft stapes was used during surgical intervention for conductive hearing loss due to ossicular malformations in 11 ears of seven patients. The external auditory canal and tympanic membrane were normal in all ears. The surgical findings for the ossicles were stapes fixation (7 ears), stapes fixation with discontinuity of the incudostapedial joint (in both ears of one patient), a deformed incus and stapes crura compressed by the facial nerve (one ear in which the stapes was not fixed) and an anomaly of the incus and stapes combined with a dermoid cyst (in one ear in which the stapes was also not fixed).

Animal model for ischemic facial nerve paralysis with selective vascular embolization.

An experimental model that reliably and easily produces acute ischemic facial nerve paralysis would be useful for the controlled study of treatment and to improve our understanding of the pathophysiology and treatment of facial nerve palsy. Most documented models that simulate clinical facial nerve palsy cause direct damage to the nerve. We describe an experimental model for ischemic facial nerve paralysis in the cat that employs arterial block of the internal and external maxillary and posterior auricular arteries using embolizing material (Avitene).

Neurophysiology of ischemic facial nerve paralysis in an animal model.

The establishment of an animal model for facial nerve paralysis is assuming increasing importance in clinical medicine and also in basic facial nerve research. We previously reported an animal model for ischemic facial nerve paralysis using selective vascular embolization through the internal maxillary and posterior auricular arteries in cats using Avitene which contains bovine microfibril collagen. In this paper, we determined the exact site of the lesion in established facial paralysis.