[The condition of the auditory tube in patients with chronic purulent otitis media as shown by computed tomography].

Computed tomography (CT) was made in 25 patients with otitis media purulenta chronica (OMPC). Of them 17 patients had meso- or mesoepitympanitis and 8 patients had the history of radical operations on the ear. At first, CT was made of the temporal bone without contrast medium, then with instillation of the contrast medium through the external acoustic meatus and tympanic cavity into the auditory tube. Native computer tomograms of the temporal bones of 43 persons without any middle ear pathology were used as control. Non-contrast computer tomograms showed air in the lumen of the bone part of the auditory tube of all the examinees. It was impossible to obtain the image of the cartilage part of the auditory tube. None of 25 OMPC patients showed the signs of peritubal pneumatisation while it was registered in 14 healthy controls. By CT data, 14 of 17 patients with perforative OMPC had passable auditory tube even in aggravated inflammatory process, 3 of them had unpassable one. All 8 patients after radical operation had unpassable auditory tube. Thus, the method of contrast computer tomography determines passability of the auditory tube in the direction from the tympanic cavity to the nasopharynx and specifies the level of obstruction that is important to know before hearing improving operations of tympanoplasty type. Evaluation of the drainage function of the auditory tube basing on the time of evacuation of the contrast medium from the tympanic cavity to the nasopharynx was declared useless.