By Lisa Wood, MLS
Archivist
David J. Lim
For well over a year the Medical Heritage Center (MHC) staff has been immersed in arranging and describing the papers of David J. Lim, MD, whose specialty was otolaryngology research. The collection contains over 200 boxes of papers, publications, microphotography and other audiovisual media. It spans Dr. Lim’s career from the 1960s through the 2010s. He completed his medical training in South Korea and arrived in the United States in 1965 for a post-doctoral fellowship then came to The Ohio State University in 1966. He was named director of Ohio State’s Otological Research Laboratories in 1967. During his directorship the ORL received grants to study the effects of artillery and rifle fire on hearing, the effects of zero gravity on balance and continued funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the cause and means to prevent otitis media, also known as middle ear infection. Dr. Lim pioneered the use of powerful scanning electron microscopes to study these conditions.
Throughout his career Dr. Lim was active in professional organizations in the U.S. and other countries, including helping to found the Association for Research in Otolaryngology (ARO). After leaving Ohio State in the early 1990s Dr. Lim was the director of intramural research for the National Institute of Deafness and Communication Disorders (NIDCD), an institute within NIH. He left the NIH for California in 1995 where he continued his otolaryngology research at the House Ear Institute and was affiliated with both the University of Southern California and University of California, Los Angeles.
Dr. David J. Lim in his lab at Ohio State.
New Vocabulary
This sounds very important, but what exactly is otolaryngology? Every medical specialty has its own terms and jargon that may sound like another language to non-practitioners. Each time MHC staff process a collection from a medical provider with a different specialty we learn new terms that are common in their area of practice. After spending so much time with Dr. Lim’s materials, we have learned the meaning of otolaryngology and more related words.
You may have heard of or been treated by doctors who specialize in the ear, nose and throat, commonly called ‘ENTs.’ While these three body parts are closely related and function together, there are words to describe the study of them individually. Otology is the science and study of diseases of the ear, rhinology of the nose and laryngology of the throat. They can be combined to describe the study of multiple parts. While the term otorhinolaryngology is sometimes used, physicians specializing in studying or treating diseases of the ear, nose and throat also describe themselves as otolaryngologists. The root word oto, Latin for ear, can also be paired with pathology, the study of disease. So, otopathology means studying diseases of the ear.
One of the ear diseases that Dr. Lim researched for a significant portion of his fifty plus year career with colleagues at Ohio State and around the globe was otitis media. What exactly is otitis media? It is the term that otolaryngologists use for middle ear infections that are common in younger children. The Merriam Webster medical dictionary defines it as:
Inflammation of the middle ear marked by pain, fever, dizziness, and abnormalities of hearing
In severe cases otitis media can lead to permanent hearing damage. Dr. Lim’s work sought better treatments that would limit hearing damage from otitis media and vaccines to prevent it all together.
Have you ever experienced ringing in your ears? An otolaryngologist like Dr. Lim would describe that as tinnitus. Merriam-Webster’s defines tinnitus as:
A sensation of noise (such as a ringing or roaring) that is typically caused by a bodily condition (such as a disturbance of the auditory nerve or wax in the ear) and usually is of the subjective form which can only be heard by the one affected
Unfortunately, there are cases where tinnitus is a symptom of a far more serious problem. Dr. Lim studied one of these conditions, Meniere’s Disease, and found evidence of viral causes. Meniere’s Disease is defined by Merriam-Webster as: A disorder of the membranous labyrinth of the inner ear that is marked by recurrent attacks of dizziness, tinnitus, and hearing loss
A phrase that stands out in this definition is the ‘membranous labyrinth of the inner ear’? How many parts are inside our ears. From the outside we see the cartilage, the ear lobe, the entry to the inner ear, maybe some wax or small hairs. Dr. Lim was a pioneer in using scanning electron microscopes to take microphotographs of the many parts of the inner ear that we cannot see. Here are definitions of some of the inner ear parts that he photographed:
- Cochlea – a hollow tube in the inner ear of higher vertebrates that is usually coiled like a snail shell and contains the sensory organ of hearing
- Eustachian Tube – a bony and cartilaginous tube connecting the middle ear with the nasopharynx and equalizing air pressure on both sides of the tympanic membrane
- Organ of Corti – a complex epithelial structure in the cochlea that contains thousands of hair cells, rests on the internal surface of the basilar membrane, and in mammals is the chief part of the ear by which sound waves are perceived and converted into nerve impulses to be transmitted to the brain
- Temporal Bone – a compound bone located on the side of the skull of some mammals including humans
Now that you know what otolaryngology means, the real challenge is to use it in conversation! The David J. Lim, MD Papers are now available for research at the Medical Heritage Center. Please contact the center at mhcmail@osumc.edu if you have any questions about the Lim Papers or other MHC collections.
Recent Comments