The chronic discharging ear in Nigeria.

A study of 386 Nigerian patients with chronic suppurative otitis media is presented. The disease usually starts in early life, even though presentation in hospital may be delayed until adult life. The important aetiological factors were found to be essentially socio-economic. Tubo-tympanic disease dominates the clinical picture and the rarity of the attic retraction type of chronic ear disease would suggest exceptionally good eustachian function in the population studied, but further study is required in this respect. It is suggested that complicated tympano-plastic procedures are in general inappropriate in the chronic ear population of this study.