Symptoms and Management of Glue Ear in School Going Children: A Prospective Study

Abstract

Aims To document clinical profile (presenting manifestation, hearing assessment) of persistent otitis media with effusion (OME) with hearing impairment in children. To compare the improvement in hearing after non-surgical versus adenoidectomy with bilateral tympanostomy done in a single sitting.

Subjects and Methods This prospective study was carried out in the Department of Otorhinolarngology, Thanjavur Medical College. The study period was from January 2010 to May 2011. Sixty children diagnosed with OME and persistent hearing impairment in the age group of 5–12 years were studied prospectively. History, otoscopy, tympanometry, acoustic reflexometry and pure tone audiometry findings were recorded before treatment and followed up at second month and sixth month after randomly allotting the children into two Groups - A and B each consisting of sample size of 30 and giving a non-surgical management to Group A and surgical management to Group B.

Results The mean age at presentation was 8.06 (±2.25) years. 85% of patients had bilateral hearing impairment and 72% of patients had symptoms of adenoid hypertrophy at presentation. Abnormal findings were noted in 90%, 90%, 94% of ear examination on pneumatic otoscopy, tympanometry, non-pneumatic otoscopy and acoustic reflexometry,
respectively.

Conclusion Bilateral hearing impairment, symptoms of adenoid hypertrophy, significant hearing impairment (?20 dB), abnormal findings on otoscopy and tympanometry were present in more than 60% of children presenting with OME and hearing impairment. In our study, medical management (Group A): 35% of children in Group A showed improvement for a short duration with recurrence associated with hearing impairment. In our study, surgical modality of management in the form of adenoidectomy with bilateral tympanostomy done in a single sitting was found to improve hearing significantly better than medical management, without major complications.