This article is only available in the PDF format. Download the PDF to view the article, as well as its associated figures and tables.
DIAGNOSIS. Presented by DR. S. MACCUENSMITH.
There should be no difficulty in establishing a diagnosis in a simple, uncomplicated involvement of the lateral sinus, but this characteristic clinical picture broadly means septicemia and must be differentiated from sepsis originating in some other part of the body, before surgical intervention is undertaken. Certain types of meningitis, central pneumonia, endocarditis, typhoid fever, malaria and pyelitis in children are to be eliminated as a causative factor when complicating an active or inactive suppurative aural disease, but once diagnosis is reasonably assured, the surgeon should lose no time in verifying his suspicions by surgical measures.
A perisinuous abscess is frequently found when wholly unexpected during a mastoid operation and should not be disturbed unless definite symptoms of septicemia occur, for in many instances the mild pyemic symptoms entirely disappear following the mastoid operation. The importance of the small veins in