Otologic Surgical Procedures: Surgery performed on the external, middle, or internal ear.Ear Diseases: Pathological processes of the ear, the hearing, and the equilibrium system of the body.Temporal Bone: Either of a pair of compound bones forming the lateral (left and right) surfaces and base of the skull which contains the organs of hearing. It is a large bone formed by the fusion of parts: the squamous (the flattened anterior-superior part), the tympanic (the curved anterior-inferior part), the mastoid (the irregular posterior portion), and the petrous (the part at the base of the skull).Mastoid: The posterior part of the temporal bone. It is a projection of the petrous bone.Hearing Loss, Conductive: Hearing loss due to interference with the mechanical reception or amplification of sound to the COCHLEA. The interference is in the outer or middle ear involving the EAR CANAL; TYMPANIC MEMBRANE; or EAR OSSICLES.Ear, Middle: The space and structures directly internal to the TYMPANIC MEMBRANE and external to the inner ear (LABYRINTH). Its major components include the AUDITORY OSSICLES and the EUSTACHIAN TUBE that connects the cavity of middle ear (tympanic cavity) to the upper part of the throat.Otoscopy: Examination of the EAR CANAL and eardrum with an OTOSCOPE.Audiometry, Pure-Tone: Measurement of hearing based on the use of pure tones of various frequencies and intensities as auditory stimuli.Mastoiditis: Inflammation of the honeycomb-like MASTOID BONE in the skull just behind the ear. It is usually a complication of OTITIS MEDIA.Meniere Disease: A disease of the inner ear (LABYRINTH) that is characterized by fluctuating SENSORINEURAL HEARING LOSS; TINNITUS; episodic VERTIGO; and aural fullness. It is the most common form of endolymphatic hydrops.Surgical Procedures, Operative: Operations carried out for the correction of deformities and defects, repair of injuries, and diagnosis and cure of certain diseases. (Taber, 18th ed.)Ear, Inner: The essential part of the hearing organ consists of two labyrinthine compartments: the bony labyrinthine and the membranous labyrinth. The bony labyrinth is a complex of three interconnecting cavities or spaces (COCHLEA; VESTIBULAR LABYRINTH; and SEMICIRCULAR CANALS) in the TEMPORAL BONE. Within the bony labyrinth lies the membranous labyrinth which is a complex of sacs and tubules (COCHLEAR DUCT; SACCULE AND UTRICLE; and SEMICIRCULAR DUCTS) forming a continuous space enclosed by EPITHELIUM and connective tissue. These spaces are filled with LABYRINTHINE FLUIDS of various compositions.Otitis Media: Inflammation of the MIDDLE EAR including the AUDITORY OSSICLES and the EUSTACHIAN TUBE.Hearing Loss: A general term for the complete or partial loss of the ability to hear from one or both ears.Hearing Loss, Sensorineural: Hearing loss resulting from damage to the COCHLEA and the sensorineural elements which lie internally beyond the oval and round windows. These elements include the AUDITORY NERVE and its connections in the BRAINSTEM.Alexander Disease: Rare leukoencephalopathy with infantile-onset accumulation of Rosenthal fibers in the subpial, periventricular, and subependymal zones of the brain. Rosenthal fibers are GLIAL FIBRILLARY ACIDIC PROTEIN aggregates found in ASTROCYTES. Juvenile- and adult-onset types show progressive atrophy of the lower brainstem instead. De novo mutations in the GFAP gene are associated with the disease with propensity for paternal inheritance.Cellular Phone: Analog or digital communications device in which the user has a wireless connection from a telephone to a nearby transmitter. It is termed cellular because the service area is divided into multiple "cells." As the user moves from one cell area to another, the call is transferred to the local transmitter.Professional Practice Location: Geographic area in which a professional person practices; includes primarily physicians and dentists.TexasHistory, 19th Century: Time period from 1801 through 1900 of the common era.Radiology, Interventional: Subspecialty of radiology that combines organ system radiography, catheter techniques and sectional imaging.Vascular Surgical Procedures: Operative procedures for the treatment of vascular disorders.MinnesotaPersonhood: The state or condition of being a human individual accorded moral and/or legal rights. Criteria to be used to determine this status are subject to debate, and range from the requirement of simply being a human organism to such requirements as that the individual be self-aware and capable of rational thought and moral agency.Disability Evaluation: Determination of the degree of a physical, mental, or emotional handicap. The diagnosis is applied to legal qualification for benefits and income under disability insurance and to eligibility for Social Security and workmen's compensation benefits.Identification (Psychology): A process by which an individual unconsciously endeavors to pattern himself after another. This process is also important in the development of the personality, particularly the superego or conscience, which is modeled largely on the behavior of adult significant others.Catalogs, LibraryCatalogs as Topic: Ordered compilations of item descriptions and sufficient information to afford access to them.Activities of Daily Living: The performance of the basic activities of self care, such as dressing, ambulation, or eating.Hospital Administration: Management of the internal organization of the hospital.Hospital Administrators: Managerial personnel responsible for implementing policy and directing the activities of hospitals.Accounting: System of recording financial transactions.Cost Allocation: The assignment, to each of several particular cost-centers, of an equitable proportion of the costs of activities that serve all of them. Cost-center usually refers to institutional departments or services.Costs and Cost Analysis: Absolute, comparative, or differential costs pertaining to services, institutions, resources, etc., or the analysis and study of these costs.Health Policy: Decisions, usually developed by government policymakers, for determining present and future objectives pertaining to the health care system.Hospital Costs: The expenses incurred by a hospital in providing care. The hospital costs attributed to a particular patient care episode include the direct costs plus an appropriate proportion of the overhead for administration, personnel, building maintenance, equipment, etc. Hospital costs are one of the factors which determine HOSPITAL CHARGES (the price the hospital sets for its services).Ear, External: The outer part of the hearing system of the body. It includes the shell-like EAR AURICLE which collects sound, and the EXTERNAL EAR CANAL, the TYMPANIC MEMBRANE, and the EXTERNAL EAR CARTILAGES.Newfoundland and Labrador: Province of Canada consisting of the island of Newfoundland and an area of Labrador. Its capital is St. John's.Carcinoma, Basal Cell: A malignant skin neoplasm that seldom metastasizes but has potentialities for local invasion and destruction. Clinically it is divided into types: nodular, cicatricial, morphaic, and erythematoid (pagetoid). They develop on hair-bearing skin, most commonly on sun-exposed areas. Approximately 85% are found on the head and neck area and the remaining 15% on the trunk and limbs. (From DeVita Jr et al., Cancer: Principles & Practice of Oncology, 3d ed, p1471)Search Engine: Software used to locate data or information stored in machine-readable form locally or at a distance such as an INTERNET site.Ear Canal: The narrow passage way that conducts the sound collected by the EAR AURICLE to the TYMPANIC MEMBRANE.Otitis Externa: Inflammation of the OUTER EAR including the external EAR CANAL, cartilages of the auricle (EAR CARTILAGE), and the TYMPANIC MEMBRANE.Ear Auricle: The shell-like structure projects like a little wing (pinna) from the side of the head. Ear auricles collect sound from the environment.Tympanoplasty: Surgical reconstruction of the hearing mechanism of the middle ear, with restoration of the drum membrane to protect the round window from sound pressure, and establishment of ossicular continuity between the tympanic membrane and the oval window. (Dorland, 28th ed.)Tympanic Membrane Perforation: A temporary or persistent opening in the eardrum (TYMPANIC MEMBRANE). Clinical signs depend on the size, location, and associated pathological condition.Tympanic Membrane: An oval semitransparent membrane separating the external EAR CANAL from the tympanic cavity (EAR, MIDDLE). It contains three layers: the skin of the external ear canal; the core of radially and circularly arranged collagen fibers; and the MUCOSA of the middle ear.Cholesteatoma, Middle Ear: A mass of KERATIN-producing squamous EPITHELIUM that resembles an inverted (suck-in) bag of skin in the MIDDLE EAR. It arises from the eardrum (TYMPANIC MEMBRANE) and grows into the MIDDLE EAR causing erosion of EAR OSSICLES and MASTOID that contains the INNER EAR.Ear Cartilage: Cartilage of the EAR AURICLE and the EXTERNAL EAR CANAL.Myringoplasty: Surgical restoration of a perforated tympanic membrane by grafting. (Dorland, 28th ed.)Treatment Outcome: Evaluation undertaken to assess the results or consequences of management and procedures used in combating disease in order to determine the efficacy, effectiveness, safety, and practicability of these interventions in individual cases or series.Subcellular Fractions: Components of a cell produced by various separation techniques which, though they disrupt the delicate anatomy of a cell, preserve the structure and physiology of its functioning constituents for biochemical and ultrastructural analysis. (From Alberts et al., Molecular Biology of the Cell, 2d ed, p163)Medical Subject Headings: Controlled vocabulary thesaurus produced by the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. It consists of sets of terms naming descriptors in a hierarchical structure that permits searching at various levels of specificity.Subject Headings: Terms or expressions which provide the major means of access by subject to the bibliographic unit.MEDLARS: A computerized biomedical bibliographic storage and retrieval system operated by the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. MEDLARS stands for Medical Literature Analysis and Retrieval System, which was first introduced in 1964 and evolved into an online system in 1971 called MEDLINE (MEDLARS Online). As other online databases were developed, MEDLARS became the name of the entire NLM information system while MEDLINE became the name of the premier database. MEDLARS was used to produce the former printed Cumulated Index Medicus, and the printed monthly Index Medicus, until that publication ceased in December 2004.Abstracting and Indexing as Topic: Activities performed to identify concepts and aspects of published information and research reports.MEDLINE: The premier bibliographic database of the NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE. MEDLINE® (MEDLARS Online) is the primary subset of PUBMED and can be searched on NLM's Web site in PubMed or the NLM Gateway. MEDLINE references are indexed with MEDICAL SUBJECT HEADINGS (MeSH).