To Study the Association of the Size and Site of Tympanic Membrane Perforation with the Degree of Hearing Loss

Chronic suppurative otitis media is a serious health problem worldwide. It has been a general view that the hearing loss increases with the size of the perforation, more so if it is in the postero- inferior quadrant. The present study is an effort to test the validity of above concepts. With Institutional ethical committee clearance, an observational study was carried at SMS medical college, Jaipur. A total of 90 cases were studied. All cases between the age group 15-50 years with dry tympanic membrane perforations were divided into 3 groups Group I (0-9 mm(2)), Group II (9-30 mm(2)), Group III (>30 mm(2)) with 30 in each group based on size of perforation. Hearing loss was calculated as average of hearing loss at 500, 1000, 2000 Hz. Similarly the site of perforation was grouped as perforation involving anterior quadrant, posterior quadrant and multiple quadrant as Group A, Group B, Group C respectively. At the end of study, data was compiled systematically and analyzed using Post Hoc test. The age group ranges between 15 and 50 years with mean age of 25.6 years. Hearing loss was found to be directly proportional to the size of perforation in our study. (p = 0.000, highly significant). We also observed that hearing loss was more in posterior and multiple perforations than in anterior perforations. (p = 0.000, highly significant). Overall this study has shown significant correlation between the size and the site of the perforation to the degree of hearing loss.