Sensorineural hearing loss in chronic otitis media

Abstract

A statistical study was done on the sensorineural component in hearing loss, using 595 patients suffering from Chronic Otitis Media (COM); of these, 195 with monolateral COM were taken into consideration. They presented criteria of valuation which excluded other possible causes of sensorineural hearing loss, such as exposure to acoustic trauma, ototoxic drugs, cardiovascular disease, past head injury and hereditary causes. The contralateral (healthy) ear served as a control. We determined the average sensorineural component in the hearing losses in relation to the age of onset and duration of the disease, examining it in relation to other eventual aural complications such as cholesteatoma.On the basis of the data obtained, we believe that the sensorineural component in hearing loss does not change with respect to the age of onset of COM, but the duration of COM does exert a significant influence.

Perda auditiva sensório-neural na otite média crônica supurativa em pacientes com e sem colesteatoma

“…In the ear with SCOM, the frequency of SNHL was of 13% (15 cases). In a similar study, carried out with patients with a similar socio-economical status to those from the patients selected in the present study, SNHL was seen in 10% of the cases reviewed 12 . It is likely that SNHL associated with SCOM is higher in populations of lower socio-economic statuses 2 .…”

“…Therefore, there was a predominance of cases of long standing ear disease, in such a way that this correlation between SNHL with a longer or shorter time of ear disease duration was limited, having seen that there were few cases with shorter times of disease duration. The correlation between SNHL and SCOM was previously shown by many authors 5,11,12 . Considering all the studies evaluated, including the one hereby presented, it is plausible to speculate that the disease duration time variation, socio-economic status and cholesteatoma present could explain the different results found.…”

“…Others assessed SCOM without considering the presence or absence of cholesteatomas separately 6,7,12 . There is much controversy about the correlation between SNHL with the patient's age and chronic otitis media duration time [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] . The socio-economic environment could also be a possible factor influencing SNHL evolution 2,3 .…”

Extended High Frequency Audiometry in Secretory Otitis Media

“…A number of studies have suggested that sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) may be a sequela of otitis media [6]. Various studies have demonstrated an association between chronic suppurative otitis media and SNHL [7,8]. Studies have demonstrated other auditory findings that suggest the presence of inner ear hearing loss due to CSOM [9,10].…”

“…SOM related SNHL has been reported in 1-9% of cases [12]. In the Finnish cohort study of about 12,000 children, SOM was associated with high frequency loss (6)(7)(8) at the age of 15 years [13]. Dicroff [14] found permanent high frequency loss in few cases of SOM patient's.…”