Abstract
Objective: An issue that has recently gained attention is, in addition to conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) due to chronic otitis media (COM). The objective of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of profound hearing loss and cophosis in chronic otitis media patients with or without cholesteatoma.
Method: Transversal study. We studied 1015 patients from the Chronic Otitis Media Outpatient Clinic of the Hospital de Clínicas in Porto Alegre, evaluated between August 2000 and January 2011. The inclusion criterion was presence of COM, with or without cholesteatoma. The main outcome was the presence of profound hearing loss and cophosis.
Results: A total of 1015 patients were evaluated. Ages varied between 2 and 87 years, with an average age of 28.36 ± 18.85 years; 50% of them were females, and 371 had cholesteatoma. Of all samples, 16 had profound hearing loss or cophosis (1.57%). Considering only our deaf samples, ages varied between 10 and 74 years, with an average age of 44.23 ± 19.20 years; 11 patients (68.8%) were females, and 7 had cholesteatoma. The prevalence of profound hearing loss or cophosis in patients with and without cholesteatoma was 1.3 and 2.2%, respectively. Cholesteatoma determined an estimated risk of 1.69 for very significant hearing loss.
Conclusion: COM can affect round and oval windows and others sites of the inner ear. The prevalence of profound hearing loss and cophosis strongly associated with COM was only 1.4% in our sample. Patients with cholesteatoma have 1.7 times more chance of profound deafness/cophosis due to COM than patients without cholesteatoma.
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