Collapse of the Ear Canal During Audiometry: A Further Report

Prevalence of Hearing Impairment by Gender and Audiometric Configuration: Results From The National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999–2004) and The Keokuk County Rural Health Study (1994–1998)

“…There is also a possibility that the supra-aural type of earphones used in this study may have caused ear canal collapse in some participants. Within the subpopulation seeking audiometric testing in a hospital in the 1960s, an approximate 3-5% rate of collapsed canals was observed, and this condition lead to a characteristic audiometric configuration with a 5-10 dB notch in air conduction thresholds, typically at 2 kHz (Hildyard and Valentine, 1962). No configuration with a notch centered at 2 kHz was observed in this study, so we do not regard the possibility of ear canal collapse under supra-aural earphones to be a source of bias for the central tendencies of the audiometric configurations identified here.…”

Comments on ‘‘Earphones in audiometry’’ [Zwislocki e t a l., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 8 3, 1688–1689 (1988)]

“…This occurred with supraaural earphones in 4% of the roughly 1200 patients seen for audiometric testing reported by Hildyard and Valentine (1962). The problem is eliminated with insert earphones using properly inserted eartips, which hold the earcanal open rather than collapsing it.…”

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

“…Ainbone gaps suggesting a conductive hearing loss affecting predominantly the high frequencies have previously been described, and aetiologies, including cerumen in the ear canal, healed tympanic membrane perforations and partial ossicular disruption, discussed (Ventry et al, 1961;Hildyard and Valentine, 1962;Chandler, 1964;Coles, 1967;Bess, 1971;Mustain and Hasseltine, 1981;Marshall et al, 1983;Randolph and Schow, 1983). An important cause of such conductive losses to exclude is the spurious ainbone gap associated with ear canal collapse due to pressure of the earphone on the pinna during audiometry.…”

“…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). The majority of patients were over 65 years, but five were under 30 years.…”