3.1 Demographics
Patient demographic information, pressure abnormalities, and septum presentation for all patients were reported on Table 1 . A total of 25 patients were in the study. Nine of these patients served as controls without aural symptoms. Patient demographic variables did not show significant difference in age or sex between groups. The mean age of the patients was 44.2 years old with 14 of the patients being male and 11 being female.
When examining the relationship between the laterality of ear pain and direction of deviation or presence of a septal spur, there was no significant difference between case and control groups. From the results of the CT scans and the operations, 9 case patients had a septal deviation ipsilateral to the side of pain and 6 had a deviation contralateral to the pain. One patient had an s-shaped deviation with no stronger direction of laterality. When looking at the side of pain and a bone spur, four patients had a spur ipsilateral to their pain and four with a spur on the opposite side of the pain. Eight patients had no bone spur. Laterality of pain was not related to the actual septal deviation or the side of the spur.