EXTERNAL OTITIS: A STUDY OF THE COMPARATIVE MERITS OF MEDICAL AND ROENTGEN THERAPY

Abstract

The care and treatment of infections of the external auditory canal are often a difficult problem in the work of the otologist and the dermatologist. It is our aim to review a number of cases in which treatment was medical, and others in which roentgen radiation was used in order to determine the efficacy of each modality in the treatment of these conditions. The specific therapy used for acute infections of the external canal makes little difference in the great majority of cases, for the condition is usually more or less self limited. On the other hand, the chronic and recurrent infections in this region offer a serious therapeutic challenge. CLASSIFICATION Because of the overlapping of various types of external otitis and its symptoms as well as the gradual merging of one type of inflammation into another, the nomenclature presents somewhat of a problem. A review of the recent literature