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Ear, Nose and Throat Clinics
The visiting Aural Surgeon (Dr. F. P. M. Clarke) reports that the usual
weekly sessions of the ear, nose and throat clinics have been held at Park
Lane Medical Centre, Tottenham and at the Town Hall Centre, Hornsey.
The procedure at these clinics as regards administration, treatment and
recommendations, has followed along the customary lines adopted in the
past and discussed in previous Annual Reports.
On average, there has been a very good attendance of children, school
and pre-school, at all the clinics throughout the year, and in those instances
requiring special treatment over a long period attendance was
equally good, almost all completing the courses prescribed for them.
The results were, on the whole, very satisfactory and appreciated by the
parents.
The primary object of these special clinics since their establishment in
the early twenties has been chiefly in the field of prevention. In no other
group can the ideals of preventive medicine be better illustrated, or the
excellent effects of its correct practice be more clearly demonstrated
than among school and pre-school children.
It is well known that many of the chronic ailments and debilitating
conditions met with among the adult public had their origin during
school age, and are the results of undetected, or incorrectly treated, or
neglected symptomatic predisposing factors in childhood. During childhood
there are many signs, symptoms or "complaints" which may be
considered only trivial by parents but which to the trained and competent
observer indicate, if not treated, a portent of serious consequences to
follow—perhaps a permanent disability in later life. It is to these "complaints"
among school and pre-school children that this preventive work
can be most suitably adopted, by detecting, investigating and treating the
very earliest stages of many diseases and abnormal conditions and thus
prevent their development into a chronic form requiring perhaps later,
radical surgical procedures.
The frequency with which the early signs of certain serious defects
occur in the ear, and nose particularly—less often in the throat—among
children of school and even pre-school age would appear not to be sufficiently
realised. They are often very slight but significant symptoms and
may sometimes pass unnoticed or incorrectly appreciated. This tendency
may be due to a too cursory general examination, or to the situation of
the symptoms being remote from the ear or nose their relationship with
their real site of origin is not suspected. As well, the symptoms may be
slight and cause no great discomfort at this stage and so their presence is
not regarded as of much consequence.
In the case of the ear, perhaps the most common defect is deafness in
school and adult life, which can be traced in very many instances to an
otitis media, neglected or improperly treated during early school or
pre-school years. We have found from experience that the correct treatment
can be carried out satisfactorily only at the clinics. Home treatment
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