Middle ear mucosa in health and disease.

Abstract

Study of the mucous membrane of the middle ear in a variety of normal and pathological conditions showed that the simple squamous and simple cuboidal epithelium predominates in the normal as well as the pathological middle ear. However, metaplasia to a respiratory or even stratified squamous epithelium may occur in long-term inflammatory diseases. It is felt that the changes found in secretory otitis media are due to an inflammatory disease process. The findings of metaplasia of the epithelium, increased gland formation, and the presence of inflammatory cells in almost half the cases of secretory otitis suggests that the disease is, most likely, an inflammatory one, and not entirely due to hypoventilation of the middle ear.