Otorrhoea, and its consequences / by W.R.H. Stewart.

  • Stewart, William Robert Henry, 1852-1906.
Date:
1887
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Otorrhoea, and its consequences / by W.R.H. Stewart. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    perchloride of iron. To thoroughly cure a case of aural polypus requires, as a rule, both time and patience. The following fairly illustrates a case of aural polypus. A. D., aged seventeen, from the Grotto Home, came under my care at the hospital with a polypus in each ear. He had been gradually getting deaf for some years, and had an offensive discharge from both ears. On examina- tion, I found a large polypus in the right ear, and a smaller one in the left; the former I removed with the snare, the latter with Hinton's ring forceps. They both came away at one sitting, and there was no recurrence ; the discharge rapidly disappeared, and the hearing powers returned. A curious case of aural polypus, complicated with •im- pacted cotton wool, came under my notice at the hos- pital. J. F., aged fifty, a clerk, had for many years a more or less offensive discharge from the left ear, which had lately grown so offensive that he had lost his employment in consequence. He had been in the habit, in the earlier stages of the discharge, of inserting cotton wool in the meatus to stop the smell when he went to work, but had not done so for the last ten years, as it did not answer his purpose ; he was quite deaf on the left side, and lately had felt a good deal of pain. On examination, a large polypus was seen filling the external meatus; on attempting to remove it with Wilde's snare I found that the instrument was obstructed at a short distance and I could only get away a small portion of the polypus. I then found that the obstruction was due to a hardish substance, which, on being brought away, proved to be hardened cotton wool ; the remainder of the growth was then easily removed, and after the usual treatment the hearing was fairly well re- stored. The case is curious from the fact that the polypus should have evidently grown over the cotton wool, instead of pushing it before it, and also that the cotton wool should have remained for ten years impacted in the meatus. Gramdations often spring up when there is much dis-