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Role of otoacoustic emission in children with middle-ear effusion and grommets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 April 2007

Y Saleem
Affiliation:
Department of ENT, Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Cheshire, UK
S Ramachandran
Affiliation:
Department of ENT, Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Cheshire, UK
L Ramamurthy
Affiliation:
Department of ENT, Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Cheshire, UK
N J Kay
Affiliation:
Department of ENT, Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, Cheshire, UK

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the role of otoacoustic emission in children with middle-ear effusion and grommets.

Materials and methods: A prospective study was carried out on a total of 90 ears. All children listed for grommet insertion had a pre-operative and post-operative (three to six months after grommet insertion) pure tone audiometry, tympanometry and otoacoustic emission recorded. A comparison was made between pure tone audiometry and otoacoustic emission both pre-operatively and post-operatively.

Results: Pre-operatively, 63 ears had an abnormal pure tone audiometry of which 59 had absent otoacoustic emission. Therefore the sensitivity of otoacoustic emission in detecting a conductive loss was 59/63 = 94 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval 85 to 98 per cent). All 27 ears with normal hearing pre-operatively had normal otoacoustic emission. The specificity of otoacoustic emission was 27/27 = 100 per cent, (95 per cent confidence interval, 88 to 100 per cent). The positive predictive value was 59/59 = 100 per cent (95 per cent confidence interval, 94 to 100 per cent). After three to six months all post-operative patients with grommets had a normal pure tone audiometry and otoacoustic emission. So both pure tone audiometry and otoacoustic emission were strongly related both in patients with middle-ear effusion and in patients with grommets.

Conclusion: As the demonstration of hearing in young and difficult-to-test children can be problematic and time-consuming, we suggest that otoacoustic emission can be used as an alternative to pure tone audiometry in patients with middle-ear effusion and grommets.

Type
Main Articles
Copyright
2007 JLO (1984) Limited

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Footnotes

Presented at the British Association of Paediatric Otolaryngology Meeting, 9 September 2005, Edinburgh, UK.