Comparison of absorbance values in children with serous otitis media applied with ventilation tube

Otitis media is the second most common childhood disease after upper respiratory tract infections. One of the methods used to prevent or reduce the problems of children with otitis media is ventilation tubes. Wideband tympanometry, an acoustic-immitance measure method that evaluates the sound energy transfer functions of the middle ear, can be used to measure non-pressurized absorbance in cases where classical immitansmetric measurements such as perforation and ventilation tube applications cannot be performed. The purpose of this study is to compare the wideband absorbance values measured preoperatively, one week, one month, and three months after surgery for children undergoing ventilation tube administration and to assess whether the ventilation tube is an effective control mechanism for the treatment process. The control group consisted of 60 ears of 30 individuals with normal hearing and middle ear function between 1-8 years of age, and 49 ears of 30 individuals between 1-8 years of age with clinical indications of ventilation tube administration as the study group. Pure tone audiometry, classical tympanometric measurements and wideband tympanometric measurements were performed on the groups. For the study group, the absorbance measurements were performed three times after the first week, first month and third month postoperatively. The study group non-pressurized absorbance values measured before the operation in the study group were lower than the values measured in the control group and after surgery at all frequencies (p<0,05). A significant increase was observed in the non-pressure absorbance values of the study group after surgery; it was observed that this increase continued until the third month and in the third month the absorbance values were equal to the absorbance values of the control group. It was found that the absorbance values of frequencies between 2000 Hz and 4000 Hz were different according to the control group and this difference was found to be statistically significant (p<0,05). It is thought that this difference is caused by the perforation effect caused by the ventilation tube insertion.