The membrana tympani in health and disease : clinical contributions to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ear, with Supplement / by Adam Politzer ; tr. by A. Mathewson and H.G. Newton.

  • Ádám Politzer
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The membrana tympani in health and disease : clinical contributions to the diagnosis and treatment of diseases of the ear, with Supplement / by Adam Politzer ; tr. by A. Mathewson and H.G. Newton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    patients. By bringing together the results obtained by the reliable surgeons of that day, lie has furnished prooi that in very few eases did even a slight benefit result from the operation, whilst no improvement was obtained in the majority of patients U]3on whom it was performed without regard to pathologico-anatomical changes, pre- sent in the middle ear and up to that time little known. Attempts, indeed, to keep the perforation open were not wanting. Bits of catgut, little rods of fish-bone, and lead wires were introduced, in the anticipation that after long continuance in the opening the edges of the wound would heal over. But a closure of the perforation al- ways followed their removal. There is an interesting report by Bonnafont* of a case upon which he operated. Excision of a piece of the membrane was practised in case of a very deaf per- son, and it was followed by considerable improvement in hearing. In spite of frequent cauterization of the edges of the wound with a pencil of lunar caustic, and the introduction of catgut into the artificial opening, it was closed after six months by cicatricial tissue, with loss of the improvement in hearing which had been obtained. In the course of the next two years the opera- tion was repeated upon the same person nine or ten times, always followed, however, by closure of the perforation. After performing the operation once more upon this pa- tient, Bonnafont, in order to prevent cicatrization, intro- duced into the opening a silver canula, whose length was equal to that of the whole external meatus, and permitted * Traite theorique et pratique des maladies de l'oreille. Paris, 18G0.