Effectiveness of white cold light endoscopy, narrow band imaging endoscopy, classical tympanometry and wide band tympanometry methods in the diagnosis of chronic serous otitis media

Aim: Chronic serous otitis media is the most common cause of childhood hearing loss. In current guidelines, serous otitis media is defined as otitis media without symptoms of acute ear infection, such as ear pain and fever. Our aim in our study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of classical tympanometry, wideband tympanometry, cold light endoscopy and narrow band endoscopy imaging methods used in the diagnosis of chronic serous otitis media by comparing them with each other. Material and Method: Thirty chronic serous otitis media patients and 60 ears of these patients who applied to IU Cerrahpaşa-Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine ENT Department were included in the study. The patients were evaluated with narrow-band imaging endoscopy, classical tympanometry and wide-band tympanometry methods before the currently planned paracentesis/ventilation tube insertion operation. The tympanic membrane was examined and recorded using cold light endoscopy and narrow band imaging endoscopy. The records taken were examined and tympanic membrane status and vascularization were evaluated. Results: In our study, when comparing myringotomy, which is the gold standard in the diagnosis of SOM, with DBG endoscopy, the sensitivity and specificity of DBG were determined to be 91% and 96%, respectively. These rates show that DBG is statistically superior to classical tympanometry and white light endoscopy in terms of both sensitivity and specificity, according to the results of classical tympanogram with 40% sensitivity and 84% specificity and white cold light endoscopy with 57% sensitivity and 80% specificity. In our study, it was determined that absorbance measurements at peak pressures of wide-band tympanometry were superior to detecting effusion in SOM compared to the classical tympanogram. It has been demonstrated that DBG is superior to cold white light endoscopy in both demonstrating increased vascularity and detecting the vascularity pattern in the tympanic membrane. Conclusion: Our study is the first study in the literature in which serous otitis media is evaluated with narrow-band imaging endoscopy. DBG and GBT can be envisioned to be used as a potential diagnostic method to prevent unnecessary operations in patients diagnosed with SOM who are candidates for myringotomy and ventilation tube placement. Further studies are needed for this. Keywords: Classical tympanometry, Narrow band imaging endoscopy, Serous otitis media, Wideband tympanometry