A comparative study of pneumatization of Temporal bone

Introduction

The present review is based on the study of various classifications of pneumatization of temporal bone and their comparison. The air cells are classified based on their location in the temporal bone in a radiograph or based on their interpretation by a radiologist or otolaryngologist with the help of different reference structures.

Methods

The analysis of pneumatization in temporal bone is done by reviewing research articles related to pneumatization of temporal bone in pig, sheep, macaque and humans published in Pubmed, Sciencedirect, Scopus, and Medline, Indexed journals.

Results and discussion

According to classical classification the temporal bone is divided into five regions viz., middle ear, squamomastoid(mastoid), perilabyrinthine, petrous apex and accessory. The cells are named accordingly and they are further classified into various grades by the degree of pneumatization and density of cells present in the respective regionsMost recent work which has been cited in various articles, is done by Han et al. [19] In this pneumatization is classified based on the visualization of various reference structures such as, sigmoid sinus, labyrinth, and internal carotid artery. The lack of consensus among surgeons and otolaryngologists regarding the classification of the pneumatization of temporal bone may be a cause of failure in a few otologic surgeries such as 1⁰ mastoidectomies etc and postoperative care of skull base surgeries.