MOUTH OF THE EUSTACHIAN TUBE: Action During Swallowing and Phonation

Abstract

INFORMATION regarding the physiological movements of the eustachian tube in man and the particular muscles involved in these movements has been obtained through anatomical dissection, observations on living animals and observations on living human subjects either by means of a nasopharyngoscope or directly through large pathological defects of the face and palate. These observations have not resulted in any general agreement about the action of the muscles in this region or the sequence and time relations of the movements that take place in man. Some representative studies and conflicting ideas are described below. Cleland,¹a contemporary of Toynbee, had a patient with an ulceration of the palate through which the mouth of the tube could be visualized. He taught the patient to swallow with his mouth open so that he could observe the tube at this time. He called attention to Toynbee's observations on the tube and Toynbee's conclusion