To the Editor: I believe that Dr. Frank McGuckin may be in error in suggesting that the proposal for standardization of nomenclature for surgery of chronic ear infection by an ad hoc committee of 15 introduces semantic difficulty "because there is no definition of what is meant by chronic ear infection."
The matter of definition of "chronic suppurative otitis media" was considered by the Committee on the Conservation of Hearing of the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology. It was considered that unnecessary length would be added to the communication if this definition were included and that it was unnecessary because of the following facts: (1) the term "chronic supperative otitis media" is an elision, for the sake of brevity, of the term, "chronic suppurative otitis media and mastoiditis; (2) chronic suppurative otitis media (and mastoiditis) has long been recognized not to be a clinicopathologic entity but rather to be