A MODIFIED ENDAURAL INCISION WITH NERVE BLOCK ANESTHESIA FOR FENESTRATION AND MASTOIDECTOMY

Abstract

IN THE past five years, during which time we have performed over 1,300 fenestration operations at Wesley Memorial Hospital, Chicago, we have tried several variations of the original Lempert endaural incision.¹At present we are using a modification which affords the following advantages: 1. A shorter postoperative course for complete healing. 2. Less tendency toward atresia of the meatus. 3. Less deformity. In following our patients postoperatively, we have observed that with the old type of endaural incision, frequently the last place to heal was the relatively sharp posterior edge of the meatus and that atresia of the meatus occasionally made postoperative care more painful and difficult. In this new incision the triangular piece of skin originally discarded is now conserved; it is not removed but remains intact to form a smooth, rounded, already epithelized posterior edge of the newly formed cavity. Stratified squamous epithelium does not grow readily across a