Ice cream cone sign (middle ear ossicles)

Last revised by Wedyan Yousef Alrasheed on 11 Jul 2023

Citation, DOI, disclosures and article data

Citation:

Hacking C, Alrasheed W, Ice cream cone sign (middle ear ossicles). Reference article, Radiopaedia.org (Accessed on 01 Oct 2023) https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-76883

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53347/rID-76883

Permalink:

https://radiopaedia.org/articles/76883

rID:

76883

Article created:

30 Apr 2020, Craig Hacking ◉ ◈

Disclosures:

At the time the article was created Craig Hacking had no recorded disclosures.

View Craig Hacking's current disclosures

Last revised:

11 Jul 2023, Wedyan Yousef Alrasheed

Disclosures:

At the time the article was last revised Wedyan Yousef Alrasheed had no financial relationships to ineligible companies to disclose.

View Wedyan Yousef Alrasheed's current disclosures

Revisions:

2 times, by 1 contributor - see full revision history and disclosures

Systems:

Head & Neck, Trauma

Sections:

Anatomy

The ice cream cone sign describes the normal appearance of the middle ear ossicles on axial CT scan. The ball of the ice cream is formed by the head of the malleus and cone is formed by the body of the incus, with the tapering conical point formed by the short process pointing towards the aditus ad antrum.

Failure of this normal configuration suggests ossicular chain disruption (incudomalleolar disarticulation).