| This includes the pinna on the side of the head and the external auditory meatus, or ear canal, which terminates at the eardrum. |
| Then I realized that I couldn't hear anything at all, nothing but a constant thudding like a heartbeat in my eardrum. |
| In rare cases the eardrum will become perforated, and pus will then be seen running out of the ear. |
| Otitis externa, the clinical term for swimmer's ear, is an inflammation of the canal joining the eardrum to the external ear. |
| Vibrations of the eardrum are then coupled by the middle ear ossicles, the three smallest bones in the body, to the fluid-filled cochlea. |
| To examine the ear, doctors use an otoscope, a small instrument similar to a flashlight, through which they can see the eardrum. |
