Objective: To investigate whether the long-term presence of a patulous Eustachian tube (PET) is associated with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL). Study Design: Retrospective chart review. Setting: Tertiary referral center. Patients: Ears (n ¼ 100) were classified into two groups based on duration of PET symptom(s), i.e., Short ( 3 mo; n ¼ 47 ears) and Long (!48 mo; n ¼ 53 ears). Contralateral ears without PET (n ¼ 28 ears) were classified as the Contralateral group. Main Outcome Measures: We used ISO 7029 to calculate the hearing thresholds of an age-and sex-matched population at a given frequency. Hearing loss was defined as >25% of these calculated values. Results: At 4 kHz, the Long PET group showed a higher prevalence of hearing loss (47%) at 4 kHz than did the Contralateral (21%) and Short PET (19%) groups ( p ¼ 0.0280 and 0.0043, respectively). Ears with breathing autophony or a sonotubometric low probe tone level showed a higher prevalence of hearing loss at 4 kHz than those without this symptom or with a high probe tone level ( p ¼ 0.0329 or 0.0103, respectively). At low frequencies, !89% of the ears in all groups showed mild hearing loss. Conclusion: Chronic PET was associated with SNHL at 4 kHz. PET patients showed low-frequency hearing loss regardless of disease duration. Further studies are needed to better understand the pathophysiology of SNHL in patients with PET.
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