Cobbler’s Cut: An Innovative Technique for Middle Ear Dissection

Abstract

The Temporal bone is a valuable resource to study ear diseases and to teach anatomy to both undergraduate and postgraduate medical students. It is one of the most complicated bones of the skull. Methods of dissecting the middle ear have been described in the text books of Anatomy [1], Pathology and Forensic Medicine [2,3]. Those methods mainly involve the piece meal removal of the bone to expose the tympanic antrum and opening the middle ear cavity which requires a lot of time and expertise. The Present study was conducted on 200 Temporal Bones of 100 unidentified cadavers during Medico-legal Post-mortem Examination. We have devised a new and a very simple method to dissect the temporal bone. Dissection was carried out with the help of a single sharp edged chisel cut named as Cobbler’s Cut that quickly exposes the middle ear cavity and helps in the easily procurement of the ear ossicles (Malleus, Incus & Stapes). It was found to be successful in 86% of the cases for the easy procurement of the complete set of ear ossicles bilaterally. The cadaveric ear ossicles could be of great help for the research purposes in Forensic Medicine and ENT.