HISTOLOGIC VARIATIONS IN THE MIDDLE AND INNER EARS OF PATIENTS WITH NORMAL HEARING

Abstract

One important objective of the work of this laboratory is the interpretation of the various clinical tests of hearing. After examining a patient with impaired hearing the otologist should be able to correlate the patient's history and the findings at examination with the results of tests with the audiometer and with tuning forks and conclude with a considerable degree of accuracy what particular structure or structures in the middle or inner ear are involved in the lesion. The present and rather crude interpretation of the results of tests of hearing is based on correlations of clinical observation, results of functional tests and the histologic appearance of the various structures in the middle and inner ear; the pioneers in this type of work were Bezold, Siebenmann and Politzer. During the past ten years intensive studies of this type have been in progress in this laboratory; the temporal bones from more