Chronic myringitis and chronic suppurative otitis media.

Thirty-four chronic myringitis cases were examined by otoscopy, pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, skull X-rays, and bacteriologic study of otorrhea. Five atypical cases are presented in detail. Three of these five cases had a perforation of the tympanic membrane preceding the appearance of typical chronic myringitis. The remaining two cases showed a transient small tympanic membrane perforation during the long course of chronic myringitis. These cases suggest that chronic myringitis could occur in some chronic suppurative otitis media and that myringitis could cause tympanic membrane perforation.