Search

Introduction. A conductive hearing loss is a very common problem in childhood. It is possible to indicate many reasons for the problem, but most of the times it is caused by the infectious process, as well as the typical adenoid hypertrophy in children. Very often this disease is associated with obstruction of the eustachian tube. Aim. In this study, the authors present the results of the hearing tests of patients who underwent the treatment of the eustachian tube obstruction by pneumotherapy with otovent. The aim of the work was to monitor the effectiveness of this method of OME treatment. Material and Methods. The research group consisted of 54 children aged 4 to 15 years, including 23 girls and 31 boys. The control group consisted of 16 children. Pure tone audiometry and impedance audiometry were performed before and after the therapy, for all of the participants. Results. Obtained results of the study showed improvement in hearing in children correctly using the Otovent set. Hearing improvement was recorded both in the results of pure tone audiometry and impedance audiometry. Conclusions. The obtained results showed the effectiveness of the pneumotherapy method. In the case of the research group, 81.4% of children achieved the auditory norm (44 people). In the case of the control group, after a fi xed period of application of the Otovent set, this value was 0%. The intergroup comparative analysis clearly shows that the research group obtained significantly better results within all of the parameters assessed, than the control group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Secretory otitis media (SOM) remains a common disease among children. Although its cause is not yet perfectly established, the pathology, often a sequel of acute otitis media (AOM), is mainly characterized by persistent fluid in the middle ear cavity. Twenty-two children with a diagnosis of SOM were treated daily for 90 days with an oral formulation containing the oral probiotic Streptococcus salivarius K12 (Bactoblis®). After treatment, the children were evaluated for AOM episodes and subjected to tone audiometry, tympanometry, endonasal endoscopy, otoscopy, and tonsillar examination. Subject compliance and probiotic tolerability and side effects have also been evaluated. Our results indicate a good safety profile, a substantial reduction of AOM episodes, and a positive outcome from the treatment for all of the clinical outcomes tested. We conclude that strain K12 may have a role in reducing the occurrence and/or severity of SOM in children. From our perspective, this study constitutes a starting point toward the organization of a more extensive placebo-controlled study aimed at critically appraising our preliminary observations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our study showed that, in most cases, exudative otitis media develops on the background of nose and nasopharynx diseases. Accordingly, the timely identification and removal of the above causes, can lead to positive dynamics. A comparative analysis of the treatment results did not show reliable differences between therapy, aimed to dysfunction of auditory tube elimination and parallel tympanic cavity bypass. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]