Patterns of pneumatization of the tympanic plate

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence of tympanic plate (TP) pneumatisation as well as the various potential patterns. A retrospective study involving the archived Cone-Beam Computed Tomography (CBCT) files of 70 patients was performed to investigate anatomical variations of TP pneumatisation. Forty-eight TPs were found to be non-pneumatised, while 92 were found to contain at least peritubal air cells. Twenty patients (28.5%) did not present any variety of TP pneumatisation, while 36 patients (51.4%) exhibited a symmetrical pattern of pneumatisation. Aside from those patients who lacked TP pneumatisation, the peritubal pneumatisation pattern was found to be the most common. Further, bilateral symmetry was found to occur in more than half of all cases. CBCT is a powerful diagnostic tool, although appropriate knowledge of the anatomical possibilities remains mandatory for adequate surgical planning.