Chronic suppurative otitis media and sensorineural hearing loss: Is there a correlation?

Traditionally, it has been accepted that chronic suppurative Otitis media is associated with a breakdown in meekanical conduction of sound leading to conductive hearing loss, On;the contrary, there are two schools of thought when it come, to the issue of cpchlear involvement leading to sensorineural hearing loss (SNIIL) in chronic suppura the Otitis media. The present study was undertaken to find out whether a sensorineural component exists in hearing loss associated with chronic suppurative otitis media, A sample of 100 patients of unilateral chronic suppurative otitis media was selected for the Study and their bone conduction thresholds Mere analyzed in relation to the duration of disease using audiometric data. A 24 per cent incidence of sensoineural hearing loss was found in this series, garticularly involving the higher frequencies. Moreover, the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss progressively increased with the increase in duration of chonic suppurative Ouns meadia.