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Arch Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2000;126:1041-1042.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To serve and protect—the motto of many police departments—summarizes the functions of the eustachian tube. The timely review by Cliff A. Mergerian, MD, well presents the pros and cons of eustachian tube testing for pediatric tympanoplasty candidates.

Figure appears in full text version. N. Wendell Todd, MD

Eustachian tube services include ventilation (the maintenance of near-atmospheric middle ear pressure) and mucociliary clearance (the surface sweeping from middle ear into nasopharynx). The normal eustachian tube protects against reflux into the middle ear and from sniff-induced high negative middle ear pressure. Qualitative notions about service and protection, regarding both the eustachian tube and the police, are more readily available than are rigorous quantitative data.

Eustachian tube functions, at least qualitatively, are bilaterally symmetrical, even in patients with unilateral aural atresia.¹ Knowledge of a patient's interear qualitative eustachian tube status is invaluable. That is, if the patient's better ear is clinically normal, then tympanoplasty in the contralateral ear will . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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