Profound Sensorineural Hearing Loss with Overlay of Middle Ear Pathology-Diagnostic Implications.

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to demonstrate the diagnosis of profound mixed hearing loss which is inappropriate to be studied vigorously to prove that at the level of profound degree of severity there is a little contribution of conductive pathology. Two groups of 15 subjects each in the age range of 18-25 years with mean age of 21 years were included. Group I consisted of pure sensorineural hearing loss of profound degree and Group II was made up of pure sensorineural hearing loss of profound degree who later reported with middle ear disorder. Pure tone measurements were conducted on all the subjects following standard procedures. Conductive hearing loss was induced with insertion of the insert ear plugs/ear moulds without sound bore for subjects in Group I and pure tone threshold measurements were repeated. Air-conduction and bone-conduction thresholds were compared for subjects in Group II prior and later to check for any middle ear pathology. Results showed that when Group I was induced with conductive hearing loss, the pure tone average did not change and for Group II, there was no change in air-conduction thresholds by later developed outer ear/middle ear pathologies. Diagnosis of profound sensorineural hearing loss with the overlay of middle ear pathology will bring insights into physiology of hearing and highlight the important issues of management of middle ear pathology, not for the purpose of improvement of absolute hearing thresholds but for the case of wearing of amplification device restricting the further growth of pathology, etc.