[Hearing disorders in patients with cleft lip and palate]

Hearing threshold in cleft lip/or palate was assessed in 316 ears by pure tone audiometry. Normal hearing threshold was found in almost a half (164/51,9%) of the ears examined. Hearing defects were most frequently observed in cases of complete unilateral cleft palate (48/60%), whereas they were least frequently recorded in cases of cleft lip (15/19,2%). Complete bilateral cleft lip and palate was associated with conduction deafness in 29 (42,9%) ears examined, thus occupying the last but one place according to the frequency of association between deafness and cleft defects. A hearing conduction gap or more than 40 dB was most frequently present in complete cleft lip and palate (7/5,6%), followed by cleft palate (4/5%). Submucous cleft palate was observed to be less frequently accompanied by conduction deafness (9/56,2%) as compared to complete cleft palate, despite a common feature of bone and muscle support discontinuity. Cleft lip was least frequently accompanied by conduction deafness, but it was still present to a relatively high percentage when compared to the cleft-free population.