Sufficient consistency and initial validity information was obtained from patients with a history of active chronic otitis media to justify clinical use of the reduced item set and acquisition of further data to refine scoring.

A single, low-quality randomised controlled trial suggests that TRT is much more effective as a treatment for patients with tinnitus than tinnitus masking.

We present three cases of epidural abscess, all in patients in whom an epidural catheter had been inserted for postoperative pain management. In all three cases the infecting organism was Staphylococcus aureus and two patients had diabetes. The diagnosis was made within 3 days of epidural catheter removal in two cases, but in one the abscess did not present until after the patient had been discharged from hospital. We have retrospectively calculated the incidence of epidural abscess in our hospital over the 5-yr period 1993-98 to be 1 in 800 (0.12%). We emphasize the importance of using techniques that minimize the risk of bacterial contamination during both catheter placement and the management of infusion, and seek to raise awareness of this relatively rare but significant condition.

No abstract