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THE CHIEF complaint of almost every patient suffering from otitis media purulenta chronica without intracranial complications, for whom mastoidotympanectomy is indicated and advocated by his otologist, is, as a rule, the annoying discomfort of the persistence of his long-standing middle ear discharge, the arrest of which has resisted all available medicinal therapy.
The average otologist, when suggesting the advisability of the patient's undergoing mastoidotympanectomy, is, however, reluctant to comfort the patient with the reasonable assurance that if he accepts the advice offered, a permanently dry middle ear will be his reward. The same otologist will nevertheless often volunteer unhesitatingly the unsolicited information that by submitting to this operation the possibility of intracranial extension of the presently existing infection will be avoided.
Both the unwillingness of the otologist to reasonably assure the patient of a permanently dry middle ear and his volunteering the information that intracranial extension of the infection will