A computational study of ligaments effect in middle ear chain anatomy behavior

The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of mallear and incudal ligaments to the tympanic membrane and the stapes footplate displacement in a finite element model of the middle ear. Three cases were simulated: one without the ligaments, one including the posterior incudal and the anterior mallear ligaments and one including in addition the superior mallear and incudal ligaments. A maximum stapes footplate displacement 0.023 μm was observed at a frequency 1024 Hz by exciting the tympanic membrane at a sinusoidal sound pressure level (SPL) of 90 dB. The computational results were validated with experimental measurements from the literature. Concluding our results show that the superior ligaments are most beneficial for an accurate representation of the middle ear frequency response. Excellent agreement is observed between our results and human temporal bone experimental data and other finite element studies.