Grommets in otitis media: a 25-year follow up

This study is unique as it is the first study which can describe the long term sequelae of treatment of otitis media with effusion (OME) with insertion of grommets in the Primary Health Sector in Denmark.

Eardrum pathology and hearing acuity 25 years after treatment of OME by insertion of grommets, in a private ear-, nose-, and throat practice.

262 children with OME were treated from 1975 to 1978. The patients were re-examined by otomicroscopy, tympanometry and pure tone audiometry after 7.5, 12, and 25 years.

Hearing level, flaccida retraction and incudo pexi was equivalent. For atrophy and myringosclerosis no equivalence was shown using 95% confidence intervals. Tympanometry was fairly unchanged.

The insertion of a grommet in treating OME has no influence on hearing acuity in the long term. The prevalence of myringosclerosis and atrophy was unchanged in 70-80% of the eardrums. Most important is that the small increase in myringosclerosis and atrophy does not seem to influence the hearing acuity. We show that long term sequelae from the Primary Health Sector are similar to those from the Secondary Health sector.