MICROSCOPIC EXAMINATION OF HUMAN LABYRINTHS FROM PATIENTS EXPOSED TO LOUD NOISES

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Abstract
In the literature reports of traumatic or occupational deafness with descriptions of microscopic sections of the temporal bones are rare. Habermann1 recorded the findings in the temporal bones of a 75 year old beggar who had been an iron-worker for twenty years. The man was killed by being run over by a train. Examination of the petrosas revealed that the stapes on one side was slightly displaced so that the anterior half was pulled out as from a great tug of the stapedius muscle. But the extreme age and violent death of this man obscure the proper interpretation. At a later date Habermann2 recorded the microscopic observations in 5 cases of what he termed "professional deafness." Two of these cases he illustrated with photomicrographs of the inner ear. He observed atrophy of the eighth nerve and of the organ of Corti. These cases also presented complications, tuberculous peritonitis