OSSICLES

There are three small bones in the middle ear.These are malleus ,incus and stapes. Stapes is perhaps the smallest bone in the human body.These conduct sound from tympanic membrane to the inner ear.Any disease causing fixation or disruption of this chain will produce hearing loss which can be judged by tunic fork tests qualitatively and pure tone audiometry (hearing test) quantitatively. A tympanogam can differentiate between osscicular chain disruption and fixation. Both the conditions can be surgically corrected.