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84th Annual Meeting of the German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

German Society of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Head and Neck Surgery

08.05. - 12.05.2013, Nürnberg

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Observations on normal and degenerated human otoconia

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  • corresponding author Leif Erik Walther - HNO Praxis, Sulzbach
  • Jana Buder - Max-Planck Institut für chmische Physik fester Stoffe, Dresden
  • Rüdiger Kniep - Max-Planck Institut für chmische Physik fester Stoffe, Dresden
  • Marc Bloching - HNO-Klinik Herlios Klinikum Berlin Buch, Berlin
  • Alexander Blödow - HNO-Klinik Herlios Klinikum Berlin Buch, Berlin

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. 84. Jahresversammlung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie. Nürnberg, 08.-12.05.2013. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2013. Doc13hnod581

doi: 10.3205/13hnod581, urn:nbn:de:0183-13hnod5813

Published: April 15, 2013

© 2013 Walther et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

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Introduction: Otoconia are an important part of the sensory epithelium of the otolith organs, utricle and saccule. They represent a movable mass layer above the sensory epithelium to allow the otolith system to recognize linear acceleration in three dimensions and head tilts in relation to gravity.

The exact morphology and functional aspects of the otoconia in humans is currently poorly examined.

Methods: Human otoconia were extracted and examined by electron microscopy.

Results: Otoconia have a different size of about 1–20 µm, a crystalline structure with a cylindrical body and each three rhombohedral faces at the ends. In human specimens normal and several stages of otoconial degeneration occur.

Conclusions: Human otoconia can be extracted from human specimens for further examination. It is assumed that degenerated otoconia play a role in benign paroxysmal positional vertigo.

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