Clinical diagnosis and audiological characteristics of otitis media with effusion in elder children combined with adenoid hypertrophy

Objective To explore the clinical diagnosis and audiological characteristics of otitis media with effusion (OME) in elder adenoid hypertrophy children and to compare the various assessment methods. Methods Data of 80 candidates aged from 7 to 12 years who had undergone adenoidectomy were retrospectively analyzed. Otoscopy, tympanometry, pure tone audiometry(PTA) and CT were performed in all children before adenoidectomy. Results One hundred and five in 160 ears (65.63%) revealed middle ear effusion (MEE) by CT and confirmed by myringotomy, 98.10%(103/105) of ears were confirmed to have MEE by Type B tracing tympanogram. Type B tracing tympanogram in the diagnosis of MEE have no difference with golden standard and CT(P0.05). Adenoid hypertrophy children without MEE showed normal hearing by PTA. But there were 93.33%(98/105) ears with hearing loss, in which 12.38%(13/105)ears with MEE showed bone conduction hearing loss. Conclusions Tympanometry should be applied in the elder adenoid hypertrophy children to exclude OME before adenoidectomy.Adenoid hypertrophy children with OME could lead to hearing loss including bone conduction threshold shift. OME was a major risk factor of hearing loss in children and need to be aware of intervening the presence or development of it.