There is no sufficient evidence of the level of vestibular and hearing function in patients with chronic secretory otitis media in relation to different stages of the eardrum retraction and the effectiveness of myringotomy and tube insertion in vestibular and hearing symptom resolution.
Electronystagmography, Barany rotatory testing and Romberg’s test were performed in a group of 30 patients with chronic secretory otitis media as well as in control group, matched with sex and age, before and a month after myringotomy and tube placement. The results were compared.
Hearing test with pure tone audiometry and impedance audiometry was performed in the same groups of patients. All patients and controls filled a questionnaire on their vestibular system dysfunction: vertigo, dizziness, tinnitus, tendency to fall, imbalance, clumsiness, and disequilibrium. Patients with sensoneural hearing loss, neuropsychiatric disorders, temporal bone fractures, epilepsy and ototoxicity were excluded.
The majority of patients presented significant improvement of their vestibular and hearing symptoms after ventilation tube insertion, while a small subgroup of patients with 2nd to 3rd degree retraction pockets in the epitympanum and the posterior part of the tympanic membrane were unresponsive to treatment.
We revealed correlation between vestibular, hearing disorders and retraction pockets of
tympanic membrane in patients with unilateral and bilateral chronic secretory otitis media.
The level of vestibular and hearing function in patients with chronic secretory otitis media is an important clinical parameter. Insertion of ventilation tubes was sufficient to cure small retraction pockets and resolve vestibular and hearing symptoms. In contrast, patients with deep retraction pockets in the epitympanum and the posterior parts of the eardrum might be unresponsive to treatment, while vestibular disturbances and hearing disorders also persist.
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