Skip to main content
AAO-HNSF 2023 Annual Meeting & OTO Experience Main banner
Icon Legend
This session is not in your schedule.
This session is in your schedule. Click again to remove it.
Back
Rate ePoster

Otology/Neurotology

(228) Hearing Loss Resolution with down Syndrome and Chronic Otitis Media

Monday, October 2, 2023
2:45 PM – 3:45 PM East Coast USA Time
Has Audio
Disclosure(s):
Aaron L. Albuck, B.S.: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Lauren Mueller, BS: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Jenilkumar H. Patel, MS: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Kyle Biggins, BA: No relevant relationships to disclose.
Neal M. Jackson, MD, MBA, FACS: No relevant relationships to disclose.


Introduction: A major cause of HL in children with DS is chronic otitis media (COM). Timely diagnosis and treatment of COM in DS patients can be difficult due to narrow ear canals which reduce visualization of the tympanic membrane and middle ear. The present study aims to optimize the management of COM in pediatric DS patients, and to identify the type of intervention and time to intervention associated with resolution of HL due to COM in DS patients.

Methods: The present study is a retrospective, single-institutional study conducted at a large metropolitan children’s hospital. Patients were included from 2017-2023; inclusion criteria included pediatric patients with DS evaluated for COM. Variables included demographics, chronic health conditions, treatment intervention, time to intervention, and treatment outcomes. Statistical analyses were performed using RStudio (3.6.0).

Results: Of 63 patients (126 ears) with DS and COM, 117 ears were diagnosed with conductive HL, 3 with sensorineural HL, and 6 with mixed HL. 8 patients received stand-alone medical management (MM). Of the remaining patients receiving surgical intervention (SI), 20 patients underwent adenoidectomy and 13 underwent tonsillectomy. In total, 74 ears underwent myringotomy and 62 underwent tympanoplasty. HL resolution occurred in 4 ears with only MM and 23 ears with SI. No single intervention was found to be predictive of HL resolution. The shorter the time from first visit to diagnosis of hearing loss was found to be predictive of HL resolution (t(50)=1.95, p=0.05). Interestingly, time from first visit to MM or SI, as well as diagnosis of HL to intervention did not yield significant results in HL resolution. Moreover, no temporal measures were predictive of HL severity in the present cohort.

Conclusions: Despite extensive guidelines for management of OM in the general population, management of COM in children with DS is less clear. Our study identifies rates of COM, success rates of surgical management, and suggests that time to diagnose is important. Future studies may examine further the effects of reducing time to diagnosis for this at-risk population.