A technique for measuring the rate of cerumen production

A technique is described for quantitatively measuring the rate of cerumen production. Two different washing solutions were tried. A mixture of alcohol/ether (3:1 v/v) appeared to be the best extracting solution yielding 2.05 +/- 0.22 versus 0.73 +/- 0.14 mg/week per ear obtained with Triton X-100 solution. In addition, reproducibility was definitely better. Triton X-100 may be useful whenever microbiologic evaluations are requested. Total lipids accounted for 73.3% of cerumen extracted with the former solution, triglycerides being 19.5%, and cholesterol 7.2%. Our extracting technique appears to be a good estimate of the cerumen global output and may supply important information about cerumen in several biologic conditions.