Effect of chronic use of mobile phone on hearing of young adult age group: a case control study.

Background: Exposure to noise from mobile devices is suspected to affect hearing. Objective: To study effect of chronic use of mobile phone on hearing of young adult age group. Methods: The present study is randomized comparative case control study conducted at GMERS Medical College, Dharpur-Patan, North Gujarat, India during March 2014 to August 2015 in which 60 subjects within age group of 15-40 years were included without history of ear disease, ear complains, noise induced trauma to the ear and exposure to noisy environment. After taking written and verbal consent and approval from ethical committee 60 healthy volunteers using the mobile phones infrequently less than 15 minutes a day were included in control group and 60 healthy volunteers using the mobile phones more than 1 hour a day with individual dialogue period more than 30 minutes at a time in a day, for more than 1 year were included in study group. After all the necessary clinical examinations, all subjects were taken in audiometry room for Pure Tone Audiometry in both ears using Pure Tones of 250 Hz- 8000 Hz Frequencies with pure tone audiometry instrument. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 17 (trial version). Results: The mean age of study group was (26.17 ± 2.65 years) and that of control subjects was (26 ± 3.93 years). The mean usage of mobile phones for study group was 106.0 ± 40.73 minutes and for control group was 9.33 ± 3.65 minutes, the difference was found statistically significant. The mean hearing loss at high frequencies in both ears in study group was 8.47 ± 4.15 dB and in control group was 0.33 ± 1.826 dB that was statistically significant. Out of 30 subjects of study groups, 14 subjects (23.33%) had normal hearing, 32 subjects (53.33%) were having mild high frequency hearing loss and 14 subjects (23.33%) were having moderate high frequency hearing loss. Out of 60 subjects of study groups, 46 subjects (76.67 %) were having high frequency hearing loss (mean hearing loss of 12.17 ± 9.53) in right ear, and 20 subjects (33.33 %) were having high frequency hearing loss (mean hearing loss of 5.16 ±9.143) in left ear. Out of 60 subjects of study groups, 24 subjects (52.17%) with history of tinnitus were having mild to moderate high frequency hearing loss. In 22 subjects (47.82%) with history of warm sensation in the ear were having mild to moderate high frequency hearing loss. In 12 subjects (26.08%) with history of earache were having mild to moderate high frequency hearing loss. Conclusions: There is increase in mean hearing loss (especially at higher frequencies) with increase in duration of daily mobile phone usage. Hearing loss (especially at higher frequencies) is more marked in right ear (mobile phone using ear) as compared to left ear (non-mobile phone using ear). Mobile phone can have a deleterious effect on hearing threshold. Long term use of mobile phone can impair hearing function. Larger, longitudinal studies are needed on mobile phone use and hearing impairment.

Study of foreign body aspirations.

Objective: Foreign body aspirations comprise the majority of accidental deaths in childhood. Diagnostic delay may cause an increase in mortality and morbidity in cases without acute respiratory failure Methods: In our Hospital, bronchoscopy was performed on 105 patients with the diagnosis of foreign body aspirations.Of these cases, 65.77% were male and 34.29% female. Their ages ranged from 2 months to 13 years. Diagnosis was made on history, physical examination, radiological methods and bronchoscopy. Results: Foreign bodies were localized in the right main bronchus in 59 (56.19%) patients followed by left main bronchus in 191 (18.8%), trachea in 173 (17.1%), vocal cord in 75(7.4%) and both bronchus in 28 (26.67%). Foreign body was not found during bronchoscopy in 4 cases (3.81 %). The majority of the foreign bodies were ground nut. Foreign bodies were removed with bronchoscopy in all cases Conclusion: Rigid bronchoscopy is very effective procedure for inhaled foreign body removal with fewer complications. Proper use of diagnostic techniques provides a high degree of success, and the treatment modality to be used depending on the type of the foreign body is mostly satisfactory.

A clinical profile of oral submucous fibrosis.

Background: Oral submucous fibrosis (OSF) is a precancerous condition associated with the use of areca nut in various forms. There are very few reports to correlate the clinical stage to histopathological grading in OSF. Materials and Methods: A hospital-based study was conducted on 80 oral Submucous Fibrosis cases who visited our hospital in Jamnagar.. A detailed history of each patient was recorded along with a clinical examination. Biopsy was performed for histopathological correlation. Clinical stage of the disease in terms of the ability to open one's mouth was correlated with histopathological grading. Results: The male to female ratio of OSF cases was 3:1. All forms of areca nut products were associated with OSF. Chewing of paanmasala was associated with early presentation of OSF as compared to chewing of the betel nut The the result of all conservative therapy fails to reverse the disease. Conclusion: result of study recommend primary prevention for prevention of OSF.

A comparative study of ossiculoplasty by using various graft materials.

Introduction: The use of ossicular graft material in the ossicular chain reconstruction has significantly improved the results in the hearing after the tympanoplasty and tympanomastoid surgery for the chronic otitis media. The ossicular chain transmits the vibration of tympanic membrane to the inner ear with impedance matching function failure to which results in > 50dB hearing loss of conductive variety. Material and Method: A Prospective study of 76 patients who underwent ossiculoplasty was done in the department of ENT & Head and Neck Surgery , Sir T. Hospital ,Bhavnagar, Gujarat between May 2007 to June 2009.Only patients with conductive hearing loss were included in study and underwent ossiculoplasty with using various graft material and assessment done by post operative closure of air bone gap. Most available graft material used are auto graft, cartilage and bone, and various biosynthetic materials like gold,Teflon,plastipore,titanium etc. Results: Majority of patients are middle age group with moderate conductive hearing loss. The comparison of hearing improvement between various graft materials at 2 month and 5 months post operatively were studied in the relation to the postoperative air bone gap closure shows that auto graft and gold prosthesis are cost effective with comparable results obtained as by expensive titanium and plastipore prosthesis. Discussion & Conclusion: The ossiculoplasty materials produce varying results. The titanium and plastipore are rather expensive for the Indian patients , particularly for the government hospital poor class patients. We have tried to evaluate the results using the economical and readily available graft materials like cartilage, bone and gold prosthesis for ossiculoplasty and compared its results with costly plastipore and titanium prosthesis. prosthesis