This useful book has 10 chapters, the first 6 dealing with basic sciences and the last 4 addressing clinical disease and management. The authors are well qualified, having written more about this subject than any of their contemporaries. All their publications have reflected well-constructed, controlled studies.
Caveats for initial evaluation of children with otitis media are presented, coupled with a brief differential diagnosis of other conditions that cause conductive hearing loss: traumatic or erosive ossicular chain disruption and atelectasis of the tympanic membrane associated with ossicular discontinuity or an acquired cholesteatoma. There is an excellent section on normal eustachian tube function and dysfunction due to maldevelopment of the cranial base or intrinsic mechanical obstruction by polyps or cholesteatoma.
Knowledge of the epidemiology of middle-ear disease in children is a recent development. Longitudinal studies of American Indian and Alaskan children are presented. Otitis media unrecognized by parents, because it was asymptomatic,