[The role of computer and magnetic resonance imaging in patients with deafness]

The objective of the present study was to evaluate the potential of CT and MRI for diagnostics of congenital and acquired pathology of the inner ear in the deaf patients. Two groups of the patients were examined. The first group consisted of 75 patients with congenital or acquired deafness etiology. The second group was comprised of 75 patients with deafness associated with acute bacterial meningitis suffered in the preceding period. All the patients were examined by CT and MRI of temporal bones. The results of the study provided a basis for the development of indications for the application of CT and MRI to examine the patients presenting with hearing loss and deafness.

CT and MRI make it possible to identify individual features of the temporal bone structure significant for the surgical treatment. MRI appears to have an advantage over CT for diagnostics of early obliteration of the cochlea. Both CT and MRI are the optional methods for the examination of the patients with deafness developing after meningitis.