The cure of chronic suppuration of the middle ear without removal of the drum or ossicles or loss of hearing : with ten cases / by Charles J. Heath, F.R.C.S. Eng., Surgeon to the Throat Hospital, Golden Square, London.
- Heath, Charles J. (Charles Joseph), 1856-1934
- Date:
- 1906
Licence: In copyright
Credit: The cure of chronic suppuration of the middle ear without removal of the drum or ossicles or loss of hearing : with ten cases / by Charles J. Heath, F.R.C.S. Eng., Surgeon to the Throat Hospital, Golden Square, London. Source: Wellcome Collection.
16/24 page 14
![perforation should heal at all, and that this patient completely re¬ covered from the disease proves that elimination of the antrum was all that was required. She now has an intact hearing apparatus of excellent quality and it is probable that one or more of the only remaining three out of ten patients with, as yet, unhealed perforation will recover. (The two patients in whom the Eustachian tube is clear already show considerable reduction in the size of the tympanic per¬ foration.) This patient (Case 10), who was exhibited at the Otologicai Society two and a half years ago, has been of much interest and the encouragement derived from her recovery has had much to do with the persistence of this investigation over a period of four years. The opinion can safely be expressed that all the cases recorded above were in such a condition and had such a history as would, with the experience hitherto available, suggest to the surgeon the necessity of the radical operation, yet the results of the methods which were adopted seem to prove that in the majority, if not in all of them, the radical operation would not have resulted so favourably. Cases 4 and 6, both delicate women with defective sight, though their tympanic perforations are not yet healed, one because it is so large and the necessary time for ex¬ tensive healing has not elapsed since the operation and tne other because the Eustachian tube is obstructed, are in a far better condition as to hearing and their lives are just as safe as they would be after a radical operation. The labyrinth in each of them is defective and when this is the case half a drum is better than none if the incudo-stapedial connexion is intact, for it keeps the stapes moveable and in proper position, and this will react beneficially on the round window and on the condition of the whole labyrinth. In Cases 5, 7, and 8 the patients were admitted to the Throat Hospital, Go]den-square, on account of acute sym¬ ptoms, by order of my colleagues Dr. H. Lambert Lack and Mr. Charles A. Parker, who kindly handed them over to my care. My thanks are also due to our house surgeon, Dr. H. F. Shorney, for the care which he displayed in recording the notes of these cases. The improvement in the hearing of all these patients should not be surprising when it is recognised that no part of the hearing apparatus was removed or injured at the operation and that the source of the discharges which were the cause of the tympanic irritation and deafness was taken away. The list includes all the patients who were operated upon in this manner. They may or may not show better results than are to be expected in the future. A confident opinion may be expressed that they will be im-](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b30799752_0016.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
