Collapse of the Ear Canal During Audiometry

Misdiagnosis of hearing loss due to ear canal collapse: a report of two cases

“…A third strategy which has been used by other authors, and indeed in our patients, is the placement of an insert of various kinds into the ear canal to maintain its patency (Ventry et al, 1961;Coles, 1967;Pearlman, 1975;Penrod, 1981;Marshall and Grossman, 1982). Although this procedure may produce small errors due to changes in ear canal resonance as discussed above, the magnitude of such errors is unlikely to be such as to mask the advantage of keeping the canal patent.…”

“…Causes of significant ainbone gaps, but with preservation of stapedial reflexes include, partial ossicular disruption (Klockhoff, 1961;Anderson and Barr, 1971;Mustain and Hasseltine, 1981) cerumen in the ear canals, healed tympanic membrane perforation (Marshall et al, 1983) ear canal collapse due to pressure of the earphone on the pinna (Ventry et al, 1961;Chandler, 1964;Chaiklin and McClellan, 1971) earphone/bone-vibrator placement (Villchur, 1970) and non-organic hearing loss.…”

“…Anatomical abnormalities of the outer ear, either congenital (i.e. the 'lop ears' described by Ventry et al, 1961) or traumatic (Coles, 1967) may be predisposing factors in younger patients. Hildyard and Valentine (1962) reported 48 cases of canal collapse representing four per cent of their total clinical population (aged eight to 76 years).…”

Preventing Collapse of External Auditory Meatus During Audiometry

“…Col l apse of the external auditory meatus due to pressure on the pinna from audiometrie earphones was first reported in the literature by Ventry et al in 1961 1. Since that re¬ port, several other articles confirming the phenomenon have appeared.110 Hildyard and Valentine studied 48 patients who had collapsed ear canals in one or both ears.…”

“…While these groups of patients may exhibit collapse of the auditory meatus in greater frequency than the general population, all patients should be examined before audiomet¬ rie testing.EXAMINATION OF THE EXTERNAL AUDITORY MEATUSSeveral means of detecting collapse of the external auditory meatus have been reported. Ventry et al found dis¬ crepancies between bone conduction thresholds without the patient wear¬ ing the headphones and the speech re¬ ception thresholds by air conduction with the headphones in place 1. Lynn found that when an earphone cushion (MX-41 AR) is pressed on the pinna, the Weber test tone lateralizes to the One can determine, at the end of the otoscopie examination, if the exAccepted for publication June 26, 1975.…”