Morphologic changes in the mastoid bone under antibiotic therapy.

IT IS WELL known that the clinical course of otitis media is changed by the use of the various antibiotics. However, the correlation of the altered clinical course with the histopathologic changes has not received wide attention. Very often clinically the phenomenon of "masking" characterizes otitis media under antibiotic treatment—and in clinical terms, "masking" describes that phase of latency in regard to signs and symptoms which is observed prior to either resolution or complication. But what is the histopathologic picture during this period of latency? In seeking an answer to this question, we examined two sources of information. Those cases which in spite of antibiotic therapy came to surgery constituted a direct approach. For comparison, sections of infected mastoids not operated on and sections of bone material not influenced by antibiotics have been studied. However, masking and latency were well-known clinical entities prior to the use of chemotherapeutic and antibiotic