CHARACTERISTICS OF HEARING RECOVERY IN CHILDREN WITH CHRONIC OTITIS MEDIA WITH EFFUSION AFTER VENTILATION TUBE INSERTION.

The objective was to determine the range of hearing improvement (in dB) post ventilation tube insertion in children with chronic otitis media with effusion (COME), and whether there was a difference in hearing improvement between age groups and genders. This study also investigated whether there was a difference in the mean hearing improvement between the left and right ear, how many months passed before recovery of eustachian tube function, and how long the aeration of the middle ear lasted. The children included in the study were between six and twelve years of age, diagnosed with COME by audiological processing (type B tympanometric recording and conductive hearing loss up to 40 dB on pure tone audiometry) and underwent surgical insertion of ventilation tubes in both ears.