Below are written questions from previous quizzes and exams. Click here for a Practical Quiz - old format or Practical Quiz - new format.
- The entry of bacteria through which space could lead to an infection in the mastoid air cells:
Auditory (nasopharyngeal) tube
Cochlea
External acoustic meatus
Internal acoustic meatus
Sacculus
- Which structure is attached to the center of the tympanic membrane?
Foot plate of the stapes
Handle (manubrium) of the malleus
Long process of the incus
Tragus
Utricle
- A 45-year old woman with recurrent left middle ear infection (otitis media) complained of partial dryness of her mouth to her ENT surgeon. Taste sensation and hearing were normal. After a thorough clinical examination at the hospital, the doctor concluded that the infection must have spread to a component of the glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX) that supplies the parotid gland. On which of the following walls of the middle ear is this nerve component located?
Anterior
Lateral
Medial
Posterior
Roof
- A 3-year-old girl ruptured her eardrum when she inserted a pencil into her ear. Her mother took her to the emergency department after noticing that the child was crying and complaining of pain in her ear with a few drops of blood in the external auditory meatus. The attending doctor examined the child for possible injury to a nerve that runs across the eardrum. The most likely nerve to be injured is the:
Auricular branch of the vagus
Chorda tympani
Glossopharyngeal (CN IX)
Lesser petrosal
Trigeminal (CN V)
- An elderly patient with chronic otitis media (middle ear infection) might have all the following complications EXCEPT:
Inabilty to chew food due to injury to the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve (CN V)
Loss of taste in the anterior part of the tongue due to injury to the chorda tympani nerve
Mastoiditis
Paralysis of facial muscles due an injury to the facial nerve (CN VII)
Some degree of deafness due to damage to the ossicles
- A patient with a facial nerve paralysis suffers from inability to dampen loud noises (hyperacusis) due to denervation of which muscle?
Posterior belly of digastric
Stapedius
Tensor tympani
Stylohyoid muscle
- All of the following are true about the middle ear EXCEPT:
The joints between ossicles are synovial
The chorda tympani nerve is related to the lateral wall
The facial nerve passes in a canal situated in the medial and anterior walls
The auditory tube connects the nasopharynx with the anterior wall
Its mucous membrane is supplied by the glossopharyngeal nerve (CN IX)
- A patient has sustained a fracture to the base of the skull. Thorough examination concluded that the right greater petrosal nerve, among other structures, has been injured. This conclusion was based on which of the patient's signs:
Partial dryness of the mouth due to lack of salivary secretions from the submandibular and sublingual glands
Partial dryness of the mouth due to lack of salivary secretions from the parotid gland
Dryness of the right cornea due to lack of lacrimal secretion
Loss of taste sensation from the right anterior 2/3rd of the tongue
Loss of general sensation from the right anterior 2/3rd of the tongue
- The location of the otic ganglion is in the:
Pterygopalatine fossa
Internal ear
Infratemporal fossa
Middle cranial fossa
None of the above
- A patient complains of loss of hearing in the right ear. Examination reveals ankylosis (otosclerosis) of the footplate of the stapes to the surrounding bone. Which part of the bony labyrinth is involved?
Aditus ad antrum
Cochlear (round) window
Cochlear duct
Internal acoustic meatus
Vestibular (oval) window
- The geniculate ganglion is the sensory ganglion of which nerve:
Facial
Glossopharyngeal
Trigeminal
Vagus
Vestibulocochlear
- Repeated middle ear infections have destroyed the tympanic plexus in the middle ear cavity. The loss of preganglionic parasympathetic fibers that pass through the plexus diminish production of:
Mucus in the nasal cavity
Mucus on the soft palate
Saliva by the parotid gland
Saliva by the submandibular and sublingual glands
Tears by the lacrimal gland