Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Patients with Chronic Suppurative Otitis Media

Abstract

Even though there are other complications of chronic suppurative otitis media, the aspect of hearing loss is often studied. Nevertheless, the occurrence of sensorineural hearing loss in patients with this disease is still controversial. This study aim (1) to assess the association between sensorineural hearing loss and chronic suppurative otitis media, (2) to investigate some clinical factors that might affect the sensorineural component in patients with this disease. This was a retrospective analysis of the clinical records and pure tone audiograms of patients with chronic suppurative otitis media in a Nigerian Tertiary Health Institution from January 2003 to December 2008. Sixty-nine patients with a mean age of 28.93 years; standard deviation of 18.593 were studied. They had an age range of 4-73 years. The duration of otorrhea ranged from 2 months to 20 years; with a mean of 6.11 years (standard deviation of 6.393). The mean bone conduction threshold in the diseased ear was 39.07 dB (standard deviation of 12.028), and 10.26 dB (standard deviation of 2.620) in the control ear (P \ 0.05). The mean bone conduction threshold differences between the diseased and control ears range from 21.69 to 34.52 dB across the frequencies 0.5, 1.0, 2.0, and 4.0 kHz. These differences tended to increase with increasing frequency and were all significant (P \ 0.05). In the diseased ears, there were no significant correlation between the age, duration of otorrhea, and the degree of SNHL (r = 0.186, P [ 0.05; r = 0.190, P [ 0.05 respectively). Patients with chronic suppurative otitis media had a significant degree of sensorineural hearing loss in this study. The higher frequencies were more affected; however, the patient's age and duration of otorrhea seem not to have any correlation with the degree of sensorineural hearing loss.

Results of pediatric tympanoplasty on short‐term surgical missions

“…Still, many of our children had mixed hearing losses and were left with educationally significant elevations in their bone lines after tympanoplasty. Similar results have been reported in Nigerian patients (39 dB mean SNHL) but not in Italian patients (3 dB mean SNHL) with chronic suppurative otitis media. There are several possible explanations for these sensorineural losses.…”

Current concepts in the pathogenesis and treatment of chronic suppurative otitis media

“…Recent studies have demonstrated that CSOM is able to cause SNHL in addition to CHL (Papp et al, 2003;da Costa et al, 2009;Kolo et al, 2012;Yang et al, 2014). Infection of the middle ear leads to the generation of inflammatory mediators such as nitric oxide and arachidonic acid metabolites (Table 3), which can cause functional as well as morphological changes in the auditory structures (Housley et al, 1988;Jung et al, 1992;Guo et al, 1994;Clerici et al, 1995;Jung et al, 2003).…”

“…These bacterial toxins can be exotoxins (proteins) produced by both Gram-positive and Gramnegative bacteria, or endotoxins (LPSs of the outer membrane of Gram-negative bacteria). These infection-associated toxins might cause direct damage to hair cells, especially those at the cochlear base where the hair cells are sensitive to high-frequency sounds (Kolo et al, 2012). A significant loss of outer and inner hair cells, as well as significant atrophy of the stria vascularis in the basal turn of the cochlea, has been observed in CSOM patients.…”

Our experience with single sitting bilateral myringoplasty

“…The perforation of TM is because of chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) in a majority of outpatient cases while trauma accounts for only limited number of them. [1] Bilateral TM perforation is more common as a result of CSOM. Myringoplasty is a simple closure of TM indicated especially when healing does not occur after conservative measures.…”