Middle ear epithelia in chronic secretory otitis.

In 60 ears with secretory otitis and mucous effusion, the different kinds of epithelium in biopsy specimens from the promontory and in five postmortem cases from other localities in the middle ear are described. Most frequently, the epithelium was thick, pseudostratified, and ciliated, with pronounced basal cell hyperplasia and increase in goblet cell density. No correlation was found between the amount of effusion and the thickness of the epithelium, the basal cell hyperplasia, and the goblet cell density. In autopsies, many different kinds of epithelium were found, such as one-layered, flat, two- or three-layered, cuboidal, pseudostratified, and columnar epithelium with and without basal cell hyperplasia. The appearance of the epithelium was dependent on the stage of the chronic disease, indicating that the epithelium changes during the course of the disease.