CHARACTERISTICS OF HEARING RECOVERY IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC OTITIS MEDIA WITH EFFUSION AFTER VENTILATION TUBE INSERTION.

The objective was to determine the range of hearing improvement (in dB) post ventilation tube insertion in children with chronic otitis media with effusion (COME), and whether there was a difference in hearing improvement between age groups and genders. This study also investigated whether there was a difference in the mean hearing improvement between the left and right ear, how many months passed before recovery of eustachian tube function, and how long the aeration of the middle ear lasted. The children included in the study were between six and twelve years of age, diagnosed with COME by audiological processing (type B tympanometric recording and conductive hearing loss up to 40 dB on pure tone audiometry) and underwent surgical insertion of ventilation tubes in both ears. Patient data included preoperative tympanometric records, preoperative and postoperative tone audiometry findings, tubometry findings 6 and 10 months after insertion of ventilation tubes, age and gender data, and length of time during which the tubes were in place. The mean hearing improvement of the included patients was 24.2 dB on the right ear and 24.5 dB on the left ear. There was no statistically significant difference between the left and right ear or between the genders. Older age groups had a higher mean hearing improvement compared with the younger age group. Younger age groups had a longer expected period of eustachian tube function recovery, and were expected to have ventilation tubes inserted for a longer period of time. Treatment with ventilation tube insertion resulted in significant improvement in hearing in children where previous conservative therapy failed to recover eustachian tube function and improve hearing. Although children of older age groups had greater preoperative hearing impairment, the recovery of both eustachian tube function and hearing improvement was faster, and the mean length of time that the ventilation tubes had to be inserted was shorter.