Correlation Between Audiological, Clinical and Radiological Findings in Patients with Microtia

Abstract

Background: Microtia is a congenital abnormality of the auricle. The main problems of patients with microtia are hearing loss and cosmetic abnormalities of the affected ear. Most patients with microtia have normally formed inner ears and have no sensorineural hearing loss. High resolution computed tomography (HRCT) scan and hearing assessment are important for evaluation of patient with microtia. Objective: The aim of the current work was to evaluate the relation between audiological, clinical and radiological findings in patients with microtia. Patients and Methods: This is a descriptive cross-sectional study of 30 patients with microtia, who were selected from outpatient clinic of El-Hussein University Hospital, Cairo, Egypt, from August 2018 to September 2019. All subjects were subjected to full history taking, Otological examination, general examination, basic audiological evaluation, and radiological evaluation. Relations were evaluated between hearing level, clinical degree of microtia according to Marx et al. (1) classification and CT scoring as assessed by the CT scoring system of Jahrsdoerfer et al. (2) . Results: The hearing level correlated significantly with severity of microtia. However, there was no significant association between degree of microtia and CT scoring as assessed by the CT scoring. Also, no significant correlation between hearing level and the total CT scoring. Conclusion: The principle “The better developed the external ear, the better the hearing level” has been proved in Egyptian cases with microtia. It may not be possible to predict external and middle ear abnormalities based on microtia grades. Therefore, both audiology testing and radiology investigation are two independent evaluations before hearing reconstruction surgery.