Middle ear disease in samples from the general population. II. History of otitis and otorrhea in relation to tympanic membrane pathology. The study of men born in 1913 and 1923.

A study of 1371 men 20, 30, 50 and 60 years old and living in the city of Göteborg was performed to obtain information on otitis media infections in the general population. In addition to anamnestic data, a thorough examination of the ENT status was made by one observer. In this second report a sizable proportion of the men reported a history of otitis or otorrhea but had normal tympanic membranes. However, overall there was a close correlation between a positive history of otitis and otorrhea, and findings of pathological tympanic membranes in all the age groups, and the longer the duration of the otitis with or without otorrhea, the more frequent were the pathological findings. Men with a history of both otitis and otorrhea of long duration had generally more serious pathological findings than men with otitis but no longterm otorrhea.