AUDITORY TUBE FUNCTION SERIES

In 1552 Eustachi prepared a series of 47 anatomical plates, which (although they were published long after his death) alone assured him a distinguished position in the history of anatomy. The treatise on the ear, the auditory organ (De auditus organis), provided a correct account of the auditory tube that is still referred to by his name. He was the first to study the teeth in any detail. The treatise on the kidney was the first work specifically dedicated to that organ. These were published in Opuscula anatomica (1564). In 15 he produced a remarkable series of treatises on the kidney, the teeth, and the ear. The tube bears the name of Bartolomeo Eustachi, a 16th-century ( c. It is harder to get air into the middle ear than get it out, which is why we have more trouble with our ears when a plane is descending than when it takes off. The tube serves to adjust the pressure of the air within the middle ear to that of ambient air. This is a particular problem for children born with cleft palate who have poor function of that muscle they suffer from Eustachian tube and middle ear problems until the second muscle (the levator palati) begins to function. The Eustachian tube in the adult is opened by two muscles (the tensor palati and the levator palati) but the anatomy of children permits only one of these muscles (the tensor palati) to work. The greater length and particularly the slope of the tube as it grows serves more effectively to protect, aerate and drain the middle ear. The shorter length and the horizontality of the Eustachian tube in infancy protects the middle ear poorly, makes for poor drainage of fluid from the middle ear, and predisposes infants and young children to middle ear infection. As it grows to double that length, it grows to be at an incline of 45 degrees in adulthood so that the nasopharyngeal orifice ( opening) in the adult is significantly below the tympanic orifice (the opening in the middle ear near the ear drum). The Eustachian tube measures only 17-18mm and is horizontal at birth.

The Eustachian tube opens into the nasopharynx. The pharynx is subdivided into 3 parts: the upper part called the nasopharynx, the middle part called the oropharynx, and the lower part called the hypopharynx. This tube is also called the otopharyngeal tube (because it connects the ear to the pharynx) and in medical Latin it is the tuba acustica, tuba auditiva, or tuba auditoria. Occlusion of the Eustachian tube leads to the development of middle ear inflammation (otitis media). The function of this tube is to protect, aerate and drain the middle ear (and mastoid). Auditory tube The tube that runs from the middle ear to the pharynx, also known as the Eustachian tube.

Auditory tube function