Prevalence and Management of Otitis Media with Effusion Amongst the School Going Children of a Rural Area in Puducherry

• Main Authors: Sharath Babu K, Jayagar Prabakaran, Shankar Radhakrishnan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: The Association of Otolaryngologists of India, West Bengal 2016-04-01
• Series: Bengal Journal of Otolaryngology and Head Neck Surgery
• Subjects: Otitis Media with Effusion; Prevalence; Adenoidectomy; Tonsillectomy; adenoidectomy; Grommet Insertion
• Online Access: https://bjohns.in/journal3/index.php/bjohns/article/view/68

Background :  Otitis Media with Effusion(OME) also known as  Secretory Otitis Media, has been identified as the commonest middle ear condition causing deafness in children in developed countries. Neither the indication for surgical treatment nor the types and number of procedures used are uniform. Possible treatment includes myringotomy with or without insertion of ventilation tube either alone or with adenoidectomy and occasionally tonsillectomy. Aims and Objectives :  To assess the prevalence and the different modes of presentation of Otitis Media with Effusion among the rural school children of Puducherry and to assess the improvement in hearing after 6 months of surgical intervention done on patients with Otitis Media with Effusion. Materials and Methods:  A school screening camp was conducted on 600 children in the age group of 5-12 years in a government middle school near our medical college hospital for identifying children with Otitis Media with Effusion. Students with Otitis Media with Effusion were further classified into 4 groups for various interventional procedures namely adenotonsillectomy with bilateral grommet insertion (Group A), adenoidectomy with bilateral grommet insertion (Group B), bilateral grommet insertion (Group C),  bilateral myringotomy with wide field incision in the antero-inferior quadrant (Group D). Result : The prevalence was almost in equal proportions in the age group between 5-12 years and the overall prevalence of Otitis Media with Effusion among the study population was 13.3%. The adenotonsillectomy with bilateral grommet insertion procedure had shown a significant improvement in hearing, which was measured by using pure tone audiometry by assessing the mean air-bone gap, which was 9.81, 8.27 and 6.73 at the end of 6 weeks, 3 months and 6 months respectively, when compared to the other procedures.   Conclusion : Adenotonsillectomy with bilateral grommet insertion should be considered in a child with Otitis Media with Effusion who is at risk for speech/language/hearing loss.