Otic polyp 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 intact ear drum (typmanic membrane). The tissue is often friable, measuring
History of anatomy History of anatomy The history of anatomy extends from the earliest examinations of sacrificial victims to the sophisticated analyses of the body performed by modern scientists. The study of human anatomy can be traced back thousands of years, at least to the Egyptians, but the science of anatomy, as we know it today, did not develop until far later. The development of the study of anatomy gradually built upon concepts that were understood during the time of Galen and slowly became a part of the traditional medical curriculum. It has been characterized, over time, by a continually developing understanding of