Assessment of Post-Operative Hearing Loss after Middle Ear Surgery: A Prospective Study

ABSTRACT

Background: At the end of surgery for chronic ear disease,various forms of packing have been applied to the externalauditory canal (EAC) and the middle ear cavity (MEC). Hence;under the light of above mentioned data, we planned thepresent study to assess post-operative hearing loss aftermiddle ear surgery.Materials & Methods: The present study involved assessmentof postoperative hearing loss in patients undergoing middle earsurgeries. A total of 30 patients scheduled to undergo middleear surgery were included in the present study. Middle earsurgeries were carried out under the hands of skilled andexperienced ENT surgeons. Postoperative middle earfunctioning was assessed using a pure tone audiogram. All thereadings were obtained after one week of surgery. All theresults were recorded in Microsoft excel sheet and wereanalyzed by SPSS software.Results: Hearing loss and Otorrhoea were the most commonpreoperative symptoms found to be present in the presentstudy. In majority of the patients (83.3 %), postoperativehearing improvement was within the normal range.Conclusion: Early identification of the patients with developingpost-operative sensorineural hearing loss should be done assoon as possible so that prompt treatment could be initiated.