title: Otoacoustic Emissions in Otitis Media with Effusion: Do They Carry any Clinical Significance?
abstract: Otoacoustic emissions have been advocated in the management of otitis media with effusion. However, otoacoustic emissions cannot differentiate different types of hearing loss. This study was conducted to find factor that can differentiate otitis media with effusion from other common causes of hearing loss in children. Children were enrolled in the study and divided in four groups consisting of 25 ears each after pure tone and impedance audiometry: (1) Otitis media with effusion group, (2) Normal ear group, (3) Sensory-neural hearing loss group, (4) Chronic suppurative otitis media group. Otoacoustic emissions were recorded and results were analyzed statistically. The normal hearing group had significant difference from other groups but total band reproducibility of transient evoked otoacoustic emissions did not show any statistical difference in the cases groups. In distortion product otoacoustic emissions, group 1 showed significant difference from group 3 and group 1 had significant difference from all other groups at 4 kHz. The study did not find any factor that differentiates otitis media with effusion from other diseases. Although, distortion product otoacoustic emissions can indicate otitis media with effusion but impedance audiometry should be the main tool in the management of otitis media with effusion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, 171001 HP India.
authors.forename: J S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Thakur
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, 171001 HP India.
authors.forename: Ishan
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Chauhan
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, 171001 HP India.
authors.forename: N K
authors.initials: NK
authors.lastname: Mohindroo
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, 171001 HP India.
authors.forename: D R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Sharma
authors.affiliation: Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Indira Gandhi Medical College, Shimla, 171001 HP India.
authors.forename: R K
authors.initials: RK
authors.lastname: Azad
authors.affiliation: Department of Speech, Language and Pathology, All India Institute of Speech and Hearing, Mysore, 570 006 Karnataka India.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Vasanthalakshmi
keywords: Effusion; Hearing loss; Otitis media; Otoacoustic emission