Three-dimensional computer graphics of the eustachian tube.

Images of the eustachian tube from various directions were obtained using computer graphics. Serial cross sections of a human temporal bone specimen including the eustachian tube were digitized for reconstruction. Wire-frame models of the structures such as the eustachian tube lumen, the tubal cartilage, the tensor veli palatini muscle, and the levator veli palatini muscle were drawn. Through observation of the eustachian tube from various directions with the tubal muscles attached or detached, the physiology of the eustachian tube system could be understood more clearly.