Risk of Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Patulous Eustachian Tube.

Objective: To investigate whether the long-term presence of a patulous Eustachian tube (PET) is associated with sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL).

Study Design: Retrospective chart review.

Setting: Tertiary referral center.

Patients: Ears (n = 100) were classified into two groups based on duration of PET symptom(s), i.e., Short (≤3 mo; n = 47 ears) and Long (≥48 mo; n = 53 ears). Contralateral ears without PET (n = 28 ears) were classified as the Contralateral group.

Main Outcome Measures: We used ISO 7029 to calculate the hearing thresholds of an age- and sex-matched population at a given frequency. Hearing loss was defined as >25% of these calculated values.

Results: At 4 kHz, the Long PET group showed a higher prevalence of hearing loss (47%) at 4 kHz than did the Contralateral (21%) and Short PET (19%) groups (p = 0.0280 and 0.0043, respectively). Ears with breathing autophony or a sonotubometric low probe tone level showed a higher prevalence of hearing loss at 4 kHz than those without this symptom or with a high probe tone level (p = 0.0329 or 0.0103, respectively). At low frequencies, ≥89% of the ears in all groups showed mild hearing loss.

Conclusion: Chronic PET was associated with SNHL at 4 kHz. PET patients showed low-frequency hearing loss regardless of disease duration. Further studies are needed to better understand the pathophysiology of SNHL in patients with PET.