Speech recognition in patients after successful surgery for unilateral congenital ear anomalies

It is generally assumed that auditory stimulation since birth is important for the proper development of the central auditory nervous system. Whether auditory deprivation occurs in man and, therefore, whether it may be considered as a contraindication to surgery in unilateral congenital middle ear anomalies and atresias is the subject of the present study. Speech recognition during both monaural and binaural presentation was studied in patients who had successful surgery for a unilateral congenital ear anomaly. In binaural speech recognition tests, the average results of the patient group (N = 13) and a group of subjects with normal hearing proved to be comparable. The average speech recognition score using monaurally presented band-pass filtered speech was 84% +/- 8% and 77% +/- 10% for the unoperated (normal) and operated ears, respectively (statistically significant). Speech-to-noise ratios of -5.6 +/- 0.7 dB and -3.9 +/- 1.6 db were found in the normal and operated ears, respectively (statistically significant). It is concluded that, in general, the speech recognition scores of the operated ears were satisfactory, but poorer than those of the normal ears.