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44
tonsil suction treatment for enlarged and unhealthy tonsils;
audiometer testing (by the gramophone and pure-tone electric
audiometer) for deafness and antrum sinus transillumination. But a
considerable number of cases do not require these special technical
methods, and can be adequately treated at the subsidiary clinics.
As in previous years, by far the greatest number of children
seen were those with affections of the nose and throat. The number
of children with "running ears" is happily very small for a
population as large as Tottenham. The figure has steadily fallen
during the last decade, due no doubt to the methods employed in the
treatment and to the attention paid to early detection and treatment
of acute otitis and factors predisposing to otitis in the pre-school child.
All cases of acute discharging ears, at all ages, are now treated
daily at the minor ailment clinics, rather than the one-time practice
of home treatment, with "drops and directions," by the parent.
Home treatment is very unsatisfactory and indeed impossible for the
parents in the light of advances recently made in new drugs and new
techniques of treatment. The sulphanilamide preparation Albucid
(Schering) has been used for acute otorrhoea with excellent results.
As described in previous annual reports ' 'suction'' treatment
has been employed as a routine with remarkably good and rapid
results.
Zinc Ionisation is regularly used for chronic and certain acute
discharging ears. It has the great advantage of being rapid in
its effect, requires only one treatment in a week and leaves the patient
free from any self treatment.
Increasing attention is given to cases of sinusitis in children,
since the percentage is relatively high amongst general nasal
conditions. Every child with a history of nasal trouble and showing
much mucous or muco-pus in the nostrils is investigated for sinusitis.
Proetz displacement method is regularly employed for diagnosis and
treatment. Penicillin has been tried in a few cases with good results.
But experience has shown there is need for further investigation
into diagnosis, treatment and systemic effects of sinusitis as a
probable underlying factor in many conditions that persist in spite of
intensive treatment, having a deleterious effect on the general
health particularly of children.