Otic polyp to the external auditory canal if there is tympanic membrane perforation. Otic polyp An otic polyp (also called aural polyp) is a benign proliferation of chronic inflammatory cells associated with granulation tissue, in response to a longstanding inflammatory process of the middle ear. Patients usually present with otorrhea, conductive hearing loss, and otalgia, while bleeding and a sensation of a mass are much less common. Although imaging is not required to yield a diagnosis, it may be obtained to exclude other disorders, such as a concurrent cholesteatoma. By gross description, there is usually a solitary, polypoid, reddish mass behind an
Otic notch Otic notch Otic notches are invaginations in the posterior margin of the skull roof, one behind each orbit. Such notches are found in labyrinthodonts and some of their immediate ancestors, but not in their reptilian descendants. The presence or absence of the otic notches is one of the traits used to separate the amniotes from the amphibian grade tetrapods. The notches have been interpreted as part of an auditory structure and are often reconstructed as holding a tympanum similar to those seen in modern anurans. Analysis of the "columella" (the stapes in amphibians and reptiles) of labyrinthodonts however indicates that