DOES SURGERY OF CHRONIC OTITIS MEDIA CAUSE SENSORI NEURAL HEARING LOSS

Objective: To determine the relationship of sensori neural hearing loss and surgery for chronic otitis media. Methodology: This study was designed as a clinical trial on 90 patients with chronic otitis media (COM), who were admitted in hospital for Tympanoplasty and Mastoidectomy who were selected for the study. A pre and post, bone conduction hearing test was performed in frequencies 250 to 4000 HZ. By means of AMPLID319, auditory tests were performed in one audiometric center by one expert audiologist. Other variables like age, gender, kind of surgery, diagnosis of the lesion of the middle ear and duration of drilling were investigated and evaluated too. Then descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to evaluate hearing level before and after surgery. Result: Age of subjects was 25.1±10.7. About 53.3% of cases were females. Cholesteatomas was the most common diagnosed disease in middle ear (37.8%). Drilling duration was 31.1±16.5 minutes. There was not a statistically significant difference between the hearing levels in pre and post operated cases except for the frequency of 250 HZ. Also, no significant difference was found between duration of drilling and diagnosis of the lesion of middle ear, and hearing loss. Conclusion: As the results of the study showed no difference in hearing level was found between pre and post operated cases, therefore, it seems that by observing and considering the primary principles of ear surgery, no more sensory neural hearning loss will appear and there is no need to be worried or be sensitive in this regard.