title: Hearing 25 years after surgical treatment of otitis media with effusion in early childhood.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To determine the long-term hearing following surgical treatment of chronic OME in early childhood (myringotomy or ventilation tube) and to determine the impact of the occurrence and the extension of specific eardrum pathology on the hearing level.
  
  
  METHODS
  In 1977-1978, 224 consecutive children (91 girls and 133 boys) with chronic bilateral OME were enrolled and treated by adenoidectomy, bilateral myringotomy and insertion of a ventilation tube on the right side only. In 2002, a follow-up examination included otomicroscopy and audiometry. Hearing thresholds were compared to an age- and gender-matched normative data set. For the determination of the impact of specific eardrum pathology on the hearing, multiple linear regression modelling was used in adjustment for age and concomitant eardrum pathologies.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Long-term hearing after chronic OME and associated treatment is not different from age and gender-matched normal hearing. Treatment modality (myringotomy or ventilation tube) has no impact on the long-term hearing level. The regression analyses showed that the presence of myringosclerosis is associated with an overall hearing loss in myringotomised ears (4-5 dB), but not in tubed ears, for which only high frequencies were affected. Conversely, tensa atrophy is associated with an overall hearing loss in tubed ears (3-4 dB), but not in myringotomised ears, for which only high frequencies were affected.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Hearing 25 years after surgical treatment of chronic OME is not different from age and gender matched normal hearing. In addition, treatment modality (myringotomy or ventilation tube) has no impact on the long-term hearing level. However, atrophy is associated with a hearing loss in tubed ears, whereas myringosclerosis is associated with a hearing loss in myringotomised ears. The hearing loss associated with pathology is of limited magnitude (up to about 5 dB PTA). Even though pathology does occur more frequently and more extensively in tubed ears, the effect on the hearing at the group level is too small to have an impact. It is important to note, that this may be due to a type 2-error (number of patients too small to show an effect).
authors.affiliation: Department of Oto-Rhino-Laryngology, Copenhagen University Hospital Rigshospitalet/Gentofte, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Mojgan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Khodaverdi
authors.forename: Gita
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jørgensen
authors.forename: Theis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.forename: Sven-Eric
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Stangerup
authors.forename: Dominika
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Drozdziewizc
authors.forename: Mirko
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Tos
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bonding
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Caye-Thomasen
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002908:Chronic Disease; D005260:Female; D006309:Hearing; D034381:Hearing Loss / Q000150:complications / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008876:Middle Ear Ventilation; D010034:Otitis Media with Effusion / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000601:surgery*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014432:Tympanic Membrane / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery