Post-operative volume determinations have been made of the ear canals of 93 chronic ears operated on radically (removing the bony posterior meatal wall at operation, obliterating the surgical cavity by musculoperiosteal flap, and reconstucting the meatus, by soft-tissue only in 81 ears, or by cortical bone chips and soft tissue in 12 ears), and of 30 normal ears, using a liquied-filling method and by determining the compliance of the ear canal at a pressure of +200 mm. H2O.

The liquid-filling method gave more exact results than did the impedance measureemnts, and the results of the later showed more dispersion in all groups of ears. In 51 ears without post-operative cavities and reconstructed without bone chips, the mean value of the ear canal volume was 0.9 ml. by the liquid-filling method, and 1.5 ml, by the compliance method (p<0.001). The corresponding values for 30 ears with post-operative cavities, but without bony reconstruction of the meatus, were 1.5 ml. and 1.9 ml. (p<0.01). The values were 0.9 ml. and 1.2 ml. in 12 ears with posterior canal walls reconstructed with bone chips (p<0.01), and 0.8 ml. and 1.0 ml. in 39 normal ears (p<0.001). The liquid method seems to be a very exact method, but quite trouble-some in routine clinical use; the compliance method is suitable in most ears in which there has been bony reconstruction of the posterior meatal wall, but not in ears in which the posterior ear canal wasll has been reconstructed with solft tissues only, because the soft posterior meatal wall was mobile at +200 mm. H2O pressure.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the epidemiology of middle-ear pathology in primary school entrants is such that any screening procedue based upon a ‘once and for all’ test on a single cohort of children is unlikely to identify those children most in need of intervention and likely to lead to unnecessary over referrals both to a Community Audiology Clinic or a Specialist Unit. Further evidence is produced to show the value of serial tympanometry as a screening tool generally and the use of the tympanometer 85AR specifically. Agreement is also measured between three variables in middle-ear pathology, namely clinical appearance and mobility of the tympanic memebrane and the associated Tympanogram Type. The relative merits of clinical examination as a screen are discussed. A population of children from three primary school was studies on four separate occasions during 1980. 553 five-year-old children were tested overall.

A Case of myoepithelioma of the external auditory canal is reported. Deapite the presence of significant mitotic activity this tumore showed a benign biological behaviour as evidenced by the 7-year disease-free follow-up.

Myoepithelioma, a variant of pleomorphic adenoma composed predominantly of myoepithelial cells (Batsakis, 1979), has been reported with increasing frequency. This report desceibes a myoepithelioma of the external auditory canal, an anatomic site which has not previously been reported for this tumor type.