ABSTRACT
Background: Ear health and hearing loss (HL) among infants has devastating outcomes. With most HL being deemed preventable, the assessment of one's knowledge and attitude regarding this impairment is important. In Saudi Arabia, the state of the general population's knowledge on infant HL remains unknown. Objectives: To determine and further elucidate the general population's knowledge and attitude with regard to HL in Saudi Arabia. Methods: This is a cross-sectional survey-based study conducted on the general population of Saudi Arabia. A predetermined questionnaire was translated into Arabic. This was distributed among the targeted participants in several provinces of Saudi Arabia (central, northern, eastern, western, and southern) by using an online survey via social media. The data were collected and analyzed via the SPSS program. Results: The knowledge with moderate, poor, and good was determined among 60.9%, 29.6%, and 9.4% of the participants, respectively. The participants with positive and negative attitudes were detected among 92.6% and 7.4% of respondents, respectively. Increasing age was associated with better attitude, while increased knowledge was directly related to higher educational attainment. Those who have a child with HL had nearly twice as poor knowledge as those who do not have a child with HL (P < 0.001). Conclusions: Although most of the respondents possessed a positive attitude toward infant HL, their knowledge about it seems to be lacking. Thus, there is a need to address these knowledge gaps regarding infant HL.
ABSTRACT
Objective Endoscopic sinus surgery (ESS) is now the most often utilized surgical procedure for treating chronic sinonasal disorders. Therefore, anatomical knowledge of its variations is required to avoid serious postoperative complications. Thus, careful preoperative examination for patients with a paranasal sinus CT scan is necessary. Our study aims to evaluate Keros types and their incidence by evaluating the olfactory fossa (OF) depth according to the Keros classification on paranasal sinus CT scans in the Qassim region. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted between January 2018 and January 2021 on 148 patients with an average age of 32.59 ± 6.1 who had a non-enhanced paranasal sinus CT scan evaluated by a consultant radiologist using the PACS (picture archiving and communication system) software. Statistical analysis was performed using the statistical software package SPSS version 25 (IBM Corp., Armonk, NY). The chi-square test was used to analyze the relationship between findings and patient characteristics. Also, a p-value of < 0.05 was kept in mind to indicate statistical significance. Results The average depth of the right olfactory fossa (OF) was 5.1 mm with a standard deviation of 1.756 while it was 5.28 on the left side with a standard deviation of 1.66. According to the Keros classification, out of a total of 296 OF, type 1 was found in 84 (28.4%), type 2 in 188 (63.5%), and type 3 in 24 (8.1%). Consequently, the majority of cases were of type 2. Also, we found that type 2 was the most common on both sides in males, whereas, in females, type 2 was the most common on the left side and type 1 on the right side. Conclusion The study of the Keros classification is significantly important to evaluate the anatomy of the anterior skull base and give the surgeon knowledge about the depth of the olfactory fossa. Thus, a preoperative CT scan of the paranasal sinus is critical to ensure that the surgical approach is properly planned and possible surgical complications related to the anatomy of this area can be prevented. Our study showed that Keros type II is the most common, followed by type I and then type III.
