Otitis media as a cause of significant hearing loss among Nigerians.
Mild or worse hearing loss, defined as pure tone average >25 decibel, is seen commonly with preventable etiologies.


METHODS
A tertiary care, urban referral hospital.


METHODS
Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected data of individuals attending the hearing loss clinic of National Hospital, Abuja, between May 2005 and April 2007. Data matching the diagnosis of acute otitis media (AOM), otitis media with effusion (OME) and chronic suppurative otitis media (CSOM) were extracted from the database and analyzed.


RESULTS
A total of 298 cases with primary presenting complaints of hard of hearing were seen. A total of 77 cases had hearing loss due to otitis media. 44 (57.1%) had OME, 26 (33.8%) had CSOM, while 7 (9.1%) had AOM. The observed distribution of the OME was left OME (18.1%, n=14), right OME (9.1%, n=7) and bilateral OME (29.9%, n=23), while the CSOM is distributed into left CSOM (15.5%, n=12), bilateral CSOM (11.7%, n=9) and right CSOM (6.4%, n=5), and AOM is distributed into right AOM (2.6%, n=2), left AOM (3.9%, n=3), and bilateral AOM (2.6%, n=2). The mean pure tone averages for the three groups are AOM (30.5dB), OME (41.5dB) and CSOM (56.9dB).


CONCLUSIONS
Otitis media is an important cause of preventable hearing loss in developing countries, and the predominance of unilateral otitis media in the left ear observed in this study deserves further studies.
Olusesi
A D
AD
Hearing Loss Clinic, Department of Ear, Nose & Throat, National Hospital, Room H. 1/04, Central Area (Phase II), Garki, Abuja 90000, Nigeria. biodun@nanootology.org
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001301:Audiometry, Pure-Tone; D001844:Bone Conduction; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003906:Developing Countries; D005260:Female; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009549:Nigeria / Q000453:epidemiology; D010033:Otitis Media / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014012:Tinnitus / Q000453:epidemiology