Publication:

Hearing loss and ossicular status in cholesteatoma

Background Chronic otitis media with cholesteatoma is associated with hearing loss. Cholesteatoma causes bone erosion leading to ossicular chain defects. These ossicular lesions are only detected intraoperatively. If the ossicular status could be detected preoperatively by audiometric parameters, it would aid in better information to the patient, surgeon and preparation for the surgery. The aim of this study is to describe the intraoperative ossicular status, preoperative hearing status and to correlate them in patients with cholesteatoma.

Methods This is a retrospective case series study conducted in a tertiary care centre. Data was collected from inpatient files of 47 patients who underwent surgery for cholesteatoma from January 2016 to December 2017. Air and bone conduction thresholds, air- bone gaps from pure tone audiometry (PTA) reports were collected. The status of the ossicles was collected from the operative notes.

Results PTA revealed hearing loss in all the patients, predominantly conductive loss (83%). Ossicular defects were noted in 87% with incus most frequently involved (78.7%). Ossicular lesions were significantly associated with worse air conduction, bone conduction thresholds and air bone gap.

Conclusions Cholesteatoma is frequently associated with ossicular defects. PTA shows worse parameters in ossicular defects. But, it doesn’t reflect the status of ossicle involved or the number of ossicles involved.