Week 5 Flashcards
Describe the palatine tonsils:
- Grape-like structures
- Visible on inspection of the mouth
- Lies between the palatoglossal and palatopharyngeal folds
- Well developed in children -> immune
- Adulthood -> tend to involute
- Rich arterial supply from the facial artery
Describe the pharyngeal tonsils:
- Also known as the adenoid tonsil
- Located in the upper posterior part of the nasopharynx
- Large collection of lymphocytes
Describe the tubal tonsil:
- Around the tubal elevation
- Large mass of lymphoid tissue
Describe the lingual tonsil:
- Posterior third of the tongue
- Beneath the mucosa contains a large amount of lymphoid tissue
What do the tonsils form?
Waldeyer’s ring: an interrupted ring around the start of the respiratory tract
What is the function of tonsils?
- Hold a lot of micro-organisms that are around the throat area -> mount an immune response against them
- Protect respiratory tract from infection
What does the external ear consist of?
Auricle, external auditory canal and eardrum
What is the auricle?
- Flap of elastic cartilage covered by skin
- Rim of the auricle is the helix and inferior portion is the lobule
- Ligaments and muscles attach the auricle to the head
What is the external auditory canal?
Curved tube that lies in the temporal bone and leads to the eardrum
Describe the tympanic membrane:
- Tympanic membrane is a thin, semitransparent partition between the external auditory canal and middle ear
- Tympanic membrane is covered in epidermis and lined by simple cuboidal epithelium
- Between the epithelial layers is CT composed of collagen, elastic fibres and fibroblasts
Where and what are ceruminous glands?
- Near the exterior opening, the external auditory canal contains a few hairs and specialised sweat glands called ceruminous glands
- Ceruminous glands -> secrete cerumen that helps prevent dust and foreign objects from entering the ear
Describe the middle ear:
- Small, air-filled cavity in the petrous portion of the temporal bone
- Separated from the external ear by tympanic membrane
- Separated from internal ear by a thin bond partition that contains two small membrane-covered opening -> oval and round window
What extends across the middle ear?
Three auditory ossicles, which are attached by ligaments and are connected by synovial joints
Where does the malleus attach and articulate?
- Handle of the malleus attaches to the internal surface of the tympanic membrane
- Head of the malleus articulates with the body of the incus
Where does the incus attach and articulate?
Incus articulates with he head of the stapes
Where does the stapes attach and articulate?
Base of the stapes finds into the oval window
Where is the round window and what is it enclosed by?
Directly below the oval window, and enclosed by the secondary tympanic membrane
Describe tensor tympani:
- Innervated by mandibular branch of CN V
- Limits movement and increases tension on the eardrum to prevent damage to the inner ear from loud noises
Describe stapedius:
- Supplied by the facial nerve
- Smallest skeletal muscle
- Dampens large vibrations of stapes due to loud noises -> protects the oval window
- Decreases the sensitivity of hearing
What does the anterior wall of the middle ear contain?
An opening that leads into the auditory tube- composed of both bone and elastic cartilage and connects the ear with the nasopharynx
Is the auditory tube open or closed?
Normally closed at the pharyngeal end but opens during swallowing and yawning allowing air to enter and leave the middle ear
What does the inner ear consist of?
- A complicated series of canals
- Two main divisions;
- Outer bony labyrinth
- Inner membranous labyrinth
What is the bony labyrinth?
A series of cavities in the petrous portion of the temporal bone divided into three areas
- semicircular canals
- vestibule
- cochlea
What lines the bony labyrinth?
Periosteum, and it contains perilymph which surrounds the membranous labyrinth
What is the membranous labyrinth?
- A series of epithelial sacs and tubes within the bony labyrinth that have the same general form as the bony labyrinth and contain receptors for hearing and equilibrium
- Epithelial membranous labyrinth contains endolymph
Describe the vestibule:
- Oval central portion of the bony labyrinth
- Membranous labyrinth in the vestibule consists of two sacs called the utricle and the saccule which are connected by a small duct
Where are the semicircular canals?
Projecting superiorly and posteriorly from the vestibule are three bony semicircular canals, each of which lies at right angles to the other two
How are the semicircular canals named?
- Based on their positions, they are named the anterior, posterior and lateral semicircular canals
- Anterior and posterior are vertically orientated and lateral is horizontally orientated
What lies at one end of each canal?
A swollen enlargement called the ampulla
What are the semicircular ducts, and what do they connect with?
Portions of the membranous labyrinth that lie inside the semicircular canals, connect with the utricle
What does the vestibular branch of the vestibulocochlear nerve consist of?
Ampullary, utricular and saccular nerves
What is the cochlea?
- Anterior to the vestibule is the cochlea, a bony spiral canal that makes almost three turns around a central bony core called the modiolus
- Divided into three channels
- cochlear duct
- scala vestibuli
- scala tympani
What is the cochlear duct?
A continuation of the membranous labyrinth into the cochlea which is filled with endolymph
What is the scala vestibuli?
Channel above the cochlear duct, which ends at the oval window
What is the scala tympani?
Channel below the cochlear duct, which ends at the round window
Describe the scala vestibuli and tympani:
- Both are part of the bony labyrinth and are therefore filled with perilymph
- Completely separated by the cochlear duct except for an opening at the apex of the cochlea -> helictrema
- Cochlea adjoins the wall of the vestibule into which the scala vestibuli opens
- Vestibular membrane separates the cochlear duct from the scala vestibuli
- Basilar membrane separates the cochlear duct from the scala tympani
What rests on the basilar membrane ?
Spiral organ of Corti, a coiled sheet of about 16,000 hair cells which are the receptors for hearing
What are the two groups of hair cells?
- Inner hair cells: arranged in a single row
- Outer hair cells: arranged in three rows
What is at the apical tip of each hair cell, and what is its physiological significance?
- 40-80 stereocilia that extend into the endolymph of the cochlear duct
- Stereocilia are long hairlike microvilli arranged in several rows of graded height
How do hair cells connect to the CNS?
- At their basal ends, inner and outer hair cells synapse both with first order sensory neurons and with motor neurons from the cochlear branch of CN 8
- Cell bodies of their sensory neurons are located in the spiral ganglion
What is otitis media?
Inflammation of the middle ear
How can OM present?
- As acute otitis media (AOM) or otitis media with effusion (OME)
- AOM: refers to an acute middle ear infection which has abrupt onset of signs and symptoms related to middle ear inflammation and effusion
- OME: refers to the presence of fluid in the middle ear without signs and symptoms of AOM and may occur spontaneously due to poor auditory tube function or as an inflammatory response following AOM
What are the risk factors for OM?
- Pre-school age (infants between 3 months and 3 years)
- Premature birth
- Male gender
- Ethnicity: Native American, Inuit
- Family history of recurrent OM
- Siblings in household
- Genetic syndromes
- Low socioeconomic status
- Orofacial abnormalities: cleft lip and palate
- Dysfunction of the auditory tube that allows reflux of fluid and bacteria into the middle ear space from the nasopharynx
- Shorter, wider and more horizontal auditory tube in children
- Lying in supine position
- Bottle-fed infants
Briefly describe the aetiology of OM:
- Most cases follow an uncomplicated upper respiratory tract infection that has been present for several days
- Evidence of respiratory viruses is also found in middle ear exudates
- Aetiology of AOM and OME are interrelated
- Acute infection is usually followed by residual inflammation and effusion that in turn predisposes to recurrent infection
- Middle ear effusion is an expression of underlying mucosal inflammation
- Persistent middle ear effusion results in decreased motility of the tympanic membrane and serves as a barrier to sound conduction