HISTOPATHOLOGIC CONSIDERATIONS IN TREATMENT OF THE EUSTACHIAN TUBE

Developments in otology in the past several years have focused increasing attention on the eustachian tube and its relationship to the disease processes within the cavity of the middle ear. The reports of Crowe and Burman1on the use of irradiation of the pharyngeal orifice of the eustachian tube in the treatment of deafness have aroused new interests in the role of changes in the eustachian tube as the pathogenic factor. Studies in aero-otitis-media by Armstrong and Heim2have glorified the physiology of the eustachian tube and have presented a new otologic entity which is dependent on disturbed physiologic activity. Perlman3has presented a quantitative method of study of the patency of the eustachian tube. Whether the clinical manifestation is conductive deafness, catarrhal otitis media or aero-otitis-media, the primary factor in disease of the middle ear is almost invariably some histopathologic process within the eustachian tube itself. The histopathologic changes