The management of patients with congenital malformations of the external and middle ear

Abstract

Rehabilitation of the patients suffering from with congenital malformations of external and middle ear is a specific area of medicine requiring special knowledge and skills of the audiologists and ear surgeons. This article highlights the issues of epidemiology, classification and methods for the rehabilitation of patients presenting with this pathology that reflect our own experience and the methodology based on it for all phases of both functional and aesthetic surgical inerventions. Special attention is given to the assessment of the effectiveness of the treatment, as part of the evaluation of the quality of medical services. The results were demonstrated in 56 patients aged from 5 to 17 years. 32 of them underwent reconstructive, hearing improving surgery (meatotympanoplasty), 24 patients were managed by means of the implantation of the bone-anchored hearing systems. The assessment of the effectiveness of the treatment was conducted according to the algorithm developed by the authors, including free field pure tone audiometry and validated questionnaires for the assessment of the quality of life (the Glasgow Children's Benefit Inventory).