The temporal bones of 14 patients who had suffered from leukemia during life were histologically examined. Although morphological changes were found in all of the cases, clinical signs and symptoms referable to the ear were noted in only three cases. The two main changes were leukemic infiltration and hemorrhage. There were no characteristic differences in the histological findings in the temporal bones in the various types of leukemia. Particular attention was paid to the changes that had occurred within the bone. The differences between the findings of the previous authors and our own are accounted for by the fact that our patients had received various courses of chemotherapy and antibiotics. Such management had prolonged the patients' lives and reduced the incidence of infection and, to a certain extent, also of hemorrhage. Pathological findings included extensive infiltrative changes in the petrous tip, the major middle ear ossicles and the middle ear mucosa, some hemorrhages, and only occasional evidences of labyrinthine involvement. © 1969, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.
