Tympanometric prediction of the magnitude of hearing loss in preschool-children with secretory otitis media.

In 44 three-year-old children with chronic Eustachian tube dysfunction selected by repeated tympanometric screenings among all 3-year-old in a Danish region, the results from tympanometry, and pure-tone/speech audiometry were prospectively and blindly compared to the findings at paracentesis. The gradient of the tympanogram, and the magnitude of hearing loss separately correlated to the amount of middle ear effusion (MEE), but not to the viscosity of the MEE. At a gradient less than or equal to 0.1 no ear had a mean hearing threshold less than 20 dB (HL), and no ear with a gradient less than or equal to 0.2 had a mean hearing threshold greater than 25 dB (HL). As it has previously been shown that almost preschool-children can cooperate to tympanometry, the observations may constitute a needed, objective possibility for separating secretory otitis media (SOM) with from SOM without major hearing loss in young children, who cannot cooperate to conventional pure-tone audiometry.