[Morphological studies of postnatal changes of the sound transport apparatus in the middle ear of humans and rabbits].
The dimensions of the tympanic membrane and middle ear ossicles, respectively, were measured, in order to investigate the postnatal development of sound transport function. In human we observed only a small increase of the tympanic membrane area between the 7th postconceptional month and the 32nd year of life. This growth has no functional effect on the sound transport. In contrast, in rabbits all measured parameters with the exception of the stapes plate area show an increase until the 12th day of life. Thus, the amplification factor doubles in this species during the first 2 weeks of life. The temporal parallelism of the middle ear development with the ontogenesis of the acoustic function seems to exist in humans, but does not in rabbits.