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45
Ear, Nose, and Throat Clinic.
I am indebted to Dr. F. P. M. Clarke for the following report
on the work of the Ear, Nose and Throat Department:—
During the year 1946, the usual two ear, nose and throat
sessions per week were held at the Municipal Medical Centre, Park
Lane. The usual smooth-working conditions of the clinic as operated
in pre-war years, and to an unavoidable extent interrupted and
disorganised during the war years, were steadily being restored.
The regular attendance for treatment was improved, as the normal
working of the schools, which considerably influences attendances,
was able to resume its former regular routine. The resumption
of the usual pre-war regular school medical inspections was also
a very important factor in locating any defects or diseases of the ear,
nose and throat in the school population, and directing these
for examination and treatment to the Aural Clinic.
The total number of new cases seen during the year was 853.
Of these 756 were school children and 97 pre-school. Of the total,
a certain number, as is customary, did not require any special
clinic treatment after examination. These cases are set out in the
Table of Returns, "D".
The attendance of 97 pre-school children—the great majority
of whom required treatment for various ear, nose and throat conditions
is very satisfactory, because this is a very important age-group
in which to correct any ear, nose and throat defects. The correction
of such conditions in this age-group materially affects the number of
similar conditions to be found later in the early school-age classes.
As we have noted in previous years, the majority of children
seen at the clinic during the year were referred for "unhealthy"
conditions of the nose and throat. The number of "ear"' cases in
comparison was less than one to three; and the number of chronic
discharging ears, which formerly constituted the main bulk of the
clinic numbers, was exceedingly small for the population of this
Borough. The early treatment of acute otorrhoea. (running ear),
and nasal defects in particular, in the pre-school children, and the
efficient treatment of the acute discharging ear in the school child,
has materially reduced the "chronic running ear" amongst school
children here.
The quick and successful treatment of the acute "running"
ear is so vitally important that we wish to emphasize again the
success we have had with ear "suction" and Schering's Albucid
solution, carried out at the clinic, always with the addition of