Hearing defects in cystic fibrosis

✍ Scribed by Fritze, W. ;G�tz, M. ;Stur, O. ;Zweym�ller, E.

• Book ID: 104774656
• Publisher: Springer-Verlag
• Year: 1973
• Weight: 372 KB
• Volume: 114
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-2917
• DOI: 10.1007/bf00440498

✦ Synopsis

34 children with cystic fibrosis were investigated for defective hearing. In 11 cases a pathological audiometrie finding was observed; 10 of the children had conductive hearing loss, 1 had sensorineural hearing loss. 4 children who were too young for exact subjective audiometry were investigated with the Evoked Response Audiometry method; none of them had an abnormal result.

No correlation between the defect and the severity and duration of cystic fibrosis could be demonstrated. The reason for the defect seems to be the hypobaric pressure in the middle ear, possibly caused by pathological secretion of the mucosal glands of the Eustachian tube with resulting obstruction. Ventilation of the tube was therapeutically successfull in 4 out of 5 eases and lead to normalization of the audiogram.