Transmyringeal ventilation tube treatment in children: hearing outcome after 10 years

This ten-year cohort study intended to determine any hearing impairment and eardrum sequelae comparing children treated with ventilation tubes (VT) with an age- and gender-matched control group.

A cohort of children who received ventilation tubes in 1996 was during 2006 compared with a control group, with no history of VT treatment, using standard audiometry, high frequency audiometry and otomicroscopy.

In the spectrum of the standard audiometry, the differences between the groups were minimal. In the high frequency spectrum, even in a subgroup with normal eardrums, there were significant and major differences with inferior hearing thresholds in treated ears compared with the ears of the control group. The ventilation tube treated group presented a higher prevalence of eardrum pathology.

The ears treated with ventilation tubes had significantly higher hearing levels than the control group in the high frequency spectrum. This could be caused by the history of middle ear disease, the VT treatment or both combined.