NOISES IN THE HEAD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 217, 13 September 1930, Page 11 (Supplement)

NOISES IN THE HEAD.

CAUSES AND CURE.

INSIDIOUS GROWTH OF TROUBLE.

Subjective noises occurring permanently in the ear and heard more frequently whilst lying down, are most disagreeable and are a- cause of great trouble to those who suffer from them, writes a noted French physician. They can be traced to several causes resulting from the general state of the health, self-intoxication, circulatory troubles, lesion of the internal ear; but they are most frequently caused by a chronic catarrh of the ear, that is inflammation of the ear through the Eustachian trump, resulting from an infected pharynx or tonsils.

When the patient is a child, the first thing that is generally done is to have the back of the throat examined and the infected tonsils or vegetations removed; with an adult no such care is taken, the evolution ie more insidious, lees perceptible, since the patient does not take enough heed of the first signs of the trouble.

Those signs are generally in the pharynx—secretions are copious at the back of the throat and nose; the patient coughs, epits, Ms nose runs incessantly, lie has a nervous irritation \of the throat, fits of coughing, hie nose, is stuffed Tip. Those symptoms, are particularly in evidence in the morning on getting up, the change of position causing the mucus that has accumulated during the night to come down, resulting in what is generally" known as "pituite." The patient gets up with a dry mouth, a bitter taste from having slept with hie mouth open all night, hie breath is offensive, etc. If one consults a specialist at this stage, he will examine the throat and find more or less serious lesions in the tonsils, at the back of the pharynx or nose.

At times, after abuses in eating, drinking, speaking or other things, slight congestions occur, with paine .all along the Eustachian trump (which are always put down to dental troubles), also, not infrequently, buzzings in the ear, ringing of the voice on the ear-drum, occasional deafness: all slight things of which one takes no notice. It is then that a conscientious doctor will pass on the case to a specialist: there might be some remains of growths which need scraping off; tonsils which should be removed or separated; the tailend of the drum may need sectioning, the partition in the nose straightening; and a little care and attention will rid one of this mucous catarrh and stop the infection from spreading to the drum of the ear. Unfortunately, it is almost always the case that people wait until the Eustachian* trump has spread the infection to the middle-ear before calling in a specialist, who can only blow air into the trump or use massage. The results are not very satisfactory. However, with perseverance and well-directed care one can obtain great improvements and stop the lesions, thus avoiding deafness.

Unfortunately, patients do not have enough patience. They do not understand that a state which has taken months to develop, even years, sometimes as long as tea or twelve years, cannot be cured in a few weeks. They try anything and everything, go to any quack until they become completely and irremediably deaf, but when deafness is taken at the outset it can be cured, with care and perseverance. It is very beneficial to suppress local causes of irritation (tonsils, vegetations or growths, deviations of the nasal partition, hypertrophy of the tail-end of the drum). It is also good to disinfec. the pharynx as carefully as possible b\ inhalations, spraying with chloretone, gomenol or lenfforme, electrargol or collargol. The very latest treatment is the use of vaccine in an atomiser (ampho-vaccine, rhino-pharyngen of roncheze, or back-rhino-phage of herelle). Blowing air in the trump and mas- i sage of the drum, which one can do oneself with the help of an "auto-mas-seur" (a short tube, one end of which is placed in the ear and the other in the mouth, thus moving the tympanum by suction), are also beneficial. .