Does Mucosal Chronic Otitis Media Leads to Sensorineural Hearing Loss

Sensori-neural hearing loss (SNHL) results from inner ear damage or injury to the neural pathways that relay signals from the inner ear to the brain. A serious sequelae of COM is damage to the inner ear. This study aimed at finding the occurrence of SNHL in unilateral mucosal COM. One Hundred patients who had unilateral mucosal COM were enrolled in the study and underwent pure tone audiometry using Audio 4002 system in acoustically treated room. Bone conduction (BC) threshold less than 20 dB was taken as normal. Significant SNHL of 23% was seen in mucosal COM. Unilateral mucosal COM leads to significant impact on BC thresholds. The risk of SNHL increases with larger perforation size and increasing duration and active stage of disease.