Publication:

Audiometric assessment of adolescents and adults with tympanic membrane perforation in Benin City

Background The degree of hearing loss is directly proportional to the size of tympanic membrane (TM) perforation. However, there is dearth of information on correlation between severity of hearing loss and location of perforation on the tympanic membrane. The objective of the study was to determine the hearing level of adolescent and adult patients with tympanic membrane perforation.

Methods A cross sectional study at the ENT Clinic, University of Benin Teaching Hospital (U.B.T.H), Benin City. Consecutive patients with TM perforations were examined with ‘‘Firefly video-otoscope’’, and subsequently had pure tone audiometry. The contralateral intact TMs in individuals with unilateral TM perforation and the ears of students and staff of Institute of Health Technology UBTH were used as control. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) version 20 and Image J software. P≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results Two hundred ears from 148 patients with TM perforation in either or both ears were studied. Conductive hearing loss (CHL) had the highest prevalence; 64.3% and 55.9% in the right and left ears respectively. Slight CHL; 67.5% was more common. However, the severity of hearing loss increased with the size and also varied with the location of TM perforation.

Conclusions The hearing level among adolescent and adult patients with TM perforation showed a significant association with the size and the location of the perforation on the TM.