During the past five years a considerable amount of work and energy have been directed toward the treatment of suppurative otitis with a chemotherapeutic or a biotherapeutic agent. It has been established that acute suppurative otitis media responds well to treatment with sulfonamide compounds. The important factor in this form of therapy is to give the drug early and in sufficient quantity and to continue its use well into the safe period of resolution. There is evidence that penicillin, a more potent bacteriostatic agent, will perform in a similar manner.
It is now apparent that the sulfonamide drugs did not cure all of the draining ears, and there remains the serious problem of therapy for the condition commonly called chronic suppurative otitis media. A small percentage of the patients with long-standing purulent otitis are improved by systemic treatment with sulfonamide compounds, administered in large doses over an extended period. It