1Senior resident, The Oxford medical College Hospital and Research Centre, Bangalore
2Senior ENT Consultant, Manipal Hospital, Bangalore
Chronic otitis media (COM)is defined as inflammation of mastoid and middle ear mucosa. Hearing impairment is a common complication of COM. Hearing thresholds in chronic otitis media vary considerably. Otoscopicevaluation, correlated with pure tone audiometry may help to identify the degree and nature of hearing impairment.
1) Toevaluate the otoscopic findings in COM-perforation, retraction pockets, tympanosclerosis, aural polyp and cholesteatoma. 2) To assess the degree and type of hearing loss in each one of them. 3) To correlate the otoscopic findings in COM with the degree and type of hearing loss. 4) To find out the state of ossicles in operated patients of COM.
Descriptive study
Multidisciplinary tertiary care hospital
100 patients (200 ears) of all ages were included. Based on signs and symptoms they were divided into active and inactive squamous, active and inactive mucosal and healed COM. Otoscopic findings were noted. The air conduction threshold and the air bone gap was recorded for each of them. Operative findings of the ossicles was noted.
Conductive hearing loss (mild to moderate) is predominant followed by mixed hearing loss; air bone gap is more in larger perforations; location of perforation doesn't have any role to determine the degree of hearing loss; incus is the predominant ossicle to be destroyed in COM.
Chronic otitis mediahearing lossair conduction thresholdair bone gapossicles
