Skull Base 2006; 16 - A020
DOI: 10.1055/s-2006-958554

Transiently Evoked Otoacoustic Emissions in Otitis Media with Effusion

Dimitrios Balatsouras 1, Panayotis Eliopoulos 1 Alexandros Fassolis 1(presenter), Ioannis Anastasakis 1, Antonis Kaberos 1, C. Nicolas Economou 1, Stavros Korres 1
  • 1Piraeus, Sparti, and Athens, Greece

Aim: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is a common pediatric disease and is considered the most common cause of hearing impairment among children. Transiently evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAEs) is a new diagnostic method of assessing the cochlear status objectively. In general, middle ear effusion reduces measured emission amplitudes and sometimes eliminates the response entirely. The aim of this study was to evaluate TEOAEs in the diagnosis of OME as compared to tympanometry.

Material: A group of 38 children with bilateral OME was studied. Twenty-one of them were male and 17 female, with ages 4 to 15 years (mean, 8.3 years). Forty normal children of similar age and sex were used as controls.

Methods: All patients underwent pneumatic otoscopy, pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, and TEOAEs.

Results: In 51 ears (67%) otoacoustic emissions were absent. In the remaining 25 ears (33%) the mean emission amplitude was reduced, compared with the mean value of the control group.

Conclusions: TEOAEs is a reliable, objective, and fast method and should be included in the diagnostic workup of OME. Its sensitivity and specificity are high if quantitative criteria are used, instead of a pass/referral criterion. TEOAEs should always be used in conjunction with tympanometry, because a more meaningful interpretation of TEOAE measures is possible.