Modern therapy of inner ear disorders is increasingly shifting to local drug delivery using a growing number of pharmaceuticals. Access to the inner ear is usually made via the round window membrane (RWM), located in the bony round window niche (RWN). We hypothesize that the individual shape and size of the RWN have to be taken into account for safe reliable and controlled drug delivery. Therefore, we investigated the anatomy and its variations. Cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of 50 patients were analyzed. Based on the reconstructed 3D volumes, individual anatomies of the RWN, RWM, and bony overhang were determined by segmentation using 3D SlicerTM with a custom build plug-in. A large individual anatomical variability of the RWN with a mean volume of 4.54 mm3 (min 2.28 mm3, max 6.64 mm3) was measured. The area of the RWM ranged from 1.30 to 4.39 mm2 (mean: 2.93 mm2). The bony overhang had a mean length of 0.56 mm (min 0.04 mm, max 1.24 mm) and the shape was individually very different. Our data suggest that there is a potential for individually designed and additively manufactured RWN implants due to large differences in the volume and shape of the RWN.
Keywords: cone beam computed tomography; individualized implant; round window membrane; round window niche.