In the last few years, medical journals have been presenting increasing numbers of reports of research and clinical work on the complication of mastoiditis known as petrositis, or involvement of the apex of the petrous pyramid. This complication, hardly recognized prior to the work of Gradenigo,1 reported in 1904, is now receiving the attention it deserves. Diagnostic measures in which history, physical examination and roentgen studies2 all play major parts have been established and various surgical approaches aimed at drainage of this remote region have been devised and tested. In the future, then, a lessening in the incidence of meningitis, brain abscess and chronic otorrhea from this cause may be anticipated only so far as otologists and general practitioners, who are often the first to see these cases, will familiarize themselves with the disease and the significant points in its diagnosis.
My object in this paper is to present a case