Vibrations in the human middle ear

BACKGROUND: Middle ear surgery techniques can improve hearing destroyed by disease, but results of treatment are difficult to predict. Therefore, researchers use a Laser Doppler Vibrometer to measure vibrations of human middle ear ossicles. MATERIAL/METHODS: Measurements of ossicular chain vibrations are performed on fresh human temporal bone specimens using Laser Doppler Vibrometer. Vibrations of stapes are recorded in 3 cases: 1) for intact ossicular chain, 2) when incus long process is removed, and 3) after long process reconstruction with bone cement. A typical analysis of transfer function is completed by other methods applied in dynamics. RESULTS: Measurements and analysis of stapes vibrations in case of intact and damaged ossicular chain show regular and irregular behavior which can be recognize with the help of phase portraits, recurrence plots, correlation dimension, and Hurst and Lyapunov exponents. The long process reconstruction with bone cement gives good results in improving hearing. CONCLUSIONS: Recurrence plots, and Lyapunov and Hurst exponents used in the study complete information obtained from transfer function and can be employed to enrich the classical approach to ossicular chain vibrations.