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21
Defects of Ear, Nose and Throat.—Arthur Miller
continued as in former years to give specialist advice and treatment
at the various Health Centres to children referred from the routine
and special school inspections and from the Infarnt Welfare Centres.
The total number of attendances increased from 414 in 1941 to
610 in 1942, 533 being school children and 77 children under school
age. Included in these figures were 261 attendances by new cases,
of whom 41 were children under school age.
The children were referred on account of deafness, ear discharge,
nasal catarrh, deviated septum, epistaxis, verrtigo or enlarged
tonsils.
Of the 51 children suffering from ear comditions, 14 were
suffering from obstructive deafness, the other 377 had otitis media
of one or both ears. In two of the cases the discharge cleared up
after adenoids had been removed ; the others received treatment
which included regular instillation of ear drops, insufflation of
medicated powder and politzerisation. Of 20 new cases, 16 recovered
in the period under review.
There were 84 children referred for chromic nasal catarrh
and 34 received diastolization treatment. The remainder were
treated by removal of tonsils or adenoids.
The unusually large number of children operated on for
enlarged tonsils or adenoids is explained by their being largely
old cases who were on the waiting list before Mr. Miller began
operative sessions at Clayponds Emergency Hospital. These
arrears were met before the end of this year. Of the 146 cases,
130 were school children and 16 pre-school children. In 21 cases
adenoids were removed and in the remainder the double operation
for tonsils and adenoids was performed.
In addition to the cases referred to Mr. Miller a large number
of children were found at School Medical Inspection to suffer from
nasal, catarrh. The majority of these cases were thought by
the mothers to suffer from recurrent colds. These children were
found either to be careless about blowing their noses or had no
idea how to do so. In both classes the importance of nose blowing
was pointed out to the mothers and breathing exercises advised.
Six-monthly inspections of these children showed that great improvement
could be expected where these instructions were carried
out assiduously.
Dental Defects.—The report of Mr. c. Colenso, the Senior
Dental Surgeon, is as follows :
"The inspection of all the children in the Schools was carried
out during the year. The treatment of all children seen is not
possible during the year owing to the number of dentists now available
and who are unable to give their full time to treatment.