[The attic, epitympanic recess. Various anatomical characteristics]

The tympanic cavity is to be subdivided. The mesotympanum is surrounded by the epitympanum, the hypotympanum, the protympanum and the retrotympanum. The epitympanum coincides with the attic (epitympanic recess). The roof of the epitympanum corresponds to the paries tegmentalis, made up of a pertrous and a squamous part; the tegmen tympani represents only the petrous part of the roof. The fossula supratubaria (M. Andrea and Y. Guerrier) is to be considered as an anterior extension of the anterior epitympanum; its presence is practically constant. This is fully described. It's the key for cholesteatoma surgery. The epitympanal arteries are different according to the recessus walls and we note that the petrous part of the roof has a different vascularisation from the squamous part.