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Outer ear
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 06.07.2025
The outer ear (auris externa) includes the auricle and the external auditory canal, which form a kind of funnel for capturing sounds and directing the sound wave to the eardrum.
The auricle (auricula) is basically a complex elastic cartilage (cartilago auriculae), covered with skin tightly adjacent to the cartilage. In the lower part of the auricle, there is no cartilage. Instead, there is a skin fold with fatty tissue inside - the auricle lobe (lobulus auriculae) - the lobe. The free edge of the auricle is folded, forming a curl (helix), which in the front part of the auricle above the external auditory canal ends in the form of a crus of the curl (crus helicis).
The external auditory canal (meatus acusticus externus), open on the outside, ends blindly in the depths, separated from the middle ear cavity by the eardrum. The length of the auditory canal in an adult is on average 35 mm, the diameter reaches 9 mm at the beginning and 6 mm at the narrowest point, where the cartilaginous external auditory canal turns into a bone one.
The eardrum (membrana tympani) is a thin, translucent oval plate measuring 11 x 9 mm, separating the external auditory canal from the tympanic cavity (middle ear). The eardrum is fixed at the end of the auditory canal, in the groove of the tympanic part of the temporal bone. The large lower part of the membrane is the stretched part (pars tensa), and the upper part, approximately 2 mm wide, adjacent to the squamous part of the temporal bone, is called the relaxed part (pars flaccida).
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