Present methods of linear measurement in micro-surgical procedures in the middle ear are crude when judged in relation to the delicate structure and functioning of the normal ear.

Alternative methods of measurement employing the operating microscope are described. These depend on recording the travel of the microscope between two selected focal points and can be employed in both vertical and horizontal planes. Oblique distances can readily be calculated from the information provided. Minor alterations to existing microscopes would be required to ensure precise recording bv electronic or linear methods.

Forty-two patients affected by acute idiopathic peripheral facial palsy (AIPFP) underwent auditory brainstem evoked potential (ABEP) investigation in order to further our understanding of the nature of facial palsy. Twenty-two of these patients suffered from diabetes mellitus. Our results indicate that the AIPFP of the diabetic person may be considered as a preliminary sign of diabetic peripheral neuropathy.

A Transcannular Tru-Cut needle maxillary antral biopsy technique, which has been devised as an out-patient procedure to speed up histological diagnosis in antral disease, is here described. A trial carried out with this technique shows that the histological diagnosis reached from such biopsy specimens compares favourably with that reached from specimens taken through an intranasal antrostomy.

In view of the various technical and electricity maintainance problems with endoscopes in any developing country, a new suspension device for laryngeal endoscopy with a straight-bladed anaesthetic laryngoscope has been described. The advantages of this system are its small size, cheap cost, lack of a chest piece and the use of a non-failing battery source. It also makes use of bipod stands already available in a tonsillectomy set. It can be used in the countryside, and in out-patient and mobile clinics.

The long-term follow-up of eight patients with established subglottic stenosis managed with a composite hyoid-sternohyoid graft is reported. Four of these patients were children. All but one of the patients were extubated within four months of surgery. The reconstructed airway is shown to grow with age and re-stenosis has not occurred. Apart from post-operative granulation tissue at the repair site, the major complication has been a breathy voice in two children due to overwidening of the larynx.

A 69-year-old white female had a left superficial parotidectomy for a papillary cystic oncocytoma. The histologic appearance was identical to Warthin's tumor except that it lacked a lymphoid component. This case suggests that the general morphology of a Warthin's tumor does not depend on the presence of lymphoid tissue or association with an intra-parotid lymph node. We reviewed 50 patients with Warthin's tumor to investigate the histogenesis of the lesion. We found that most Warthin's tumors (86%) appeared to be within lymph nodes, as indicated by the presence of a lymph node capsule or sinuses. The anatomy of intra-parotid lymph nodes in glands containing Warthin's tumors has been compared with that found in 11 parotid glands containing mucoepidermoid carcinomas. So-called heterotopic ductal inclusions may actually represent the normal intimate relationship of parotid gland to intra-parotid lymph nodes.

Besides advancing our knowledge of histogenesis, immuno-cytochemical studies of salivery gland tumors have added an important objective component to the diagnosis and classification of the tumors. Cellular localization of S-100 protein now allows identification of myoepithelial cells and tumors composed of these cells. The four tumors presented in this report illustrate the diagnostic advantages afforded by S-100 protein immunocytochemistry.

An exteremely rare case of traumatic thermal injury of the middle and inner ear with deafness and irreversible peripheral facial palsy is presented. The accident was caused by a metal spark perforating the tympanic membrane during welding.