Otitis is inflammation of the ear. Different types are depending on the affected area.
In addition external otitis, the most common, (in the eardrum, chain of ossicles, cavities, other structures behind the eardrum). Within the latter type, serous otitis media consists of the accumulation of fluid in the cavities of the middle ear, behind the eardrum, for more than three months.
This fluid is the result of the malfunction of the Eustachian tube, responsible for ventilating and balancing the pressures in the middle ear. For its part, chronic otitis media consists of a chronically damaged middle ear.
So either due to the attached eardrum, destroyed ossicle chain, a chronic mucosal infection, an infection called cholesteatoma.
Sometimes the middle ear altered by malformations that sometimes associated with the outer ear. Although they may be dry, chronic middle ears often ooze.
In both serous and chronic otitis media, the main unfavorable consequence is hearing loss, that is, decreased hearing capacity. Since hearing loss interferes with the communication capacity and social integration of the individual.
it is essential to act on time,” explains María José Lavilla, president of the Audiology commission of the National Society of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck (Seorl- DC).
In the case of children, this situation aggravated since, by not deciphering the sounds, delays in the acquisition of speech and learning may appear.
Available Treatments
- In general, treatments aimed to improve the triggering cause (removing the vegetations, treating sinusitis, correcting the deviated nasal septum) and managing the ear infection or its consequences with surgery.
- However, and especially in children. It is essential to alleviate hearing loss from the beginning, whatever the degree,” says the specialist.
- Thus, in serous otitis, recourse made to the placement of transtympanic ventilation tubes that drain the liquid while the tube matures.
- If the problem not resolved, and for the rest of chronic otitis, hearing amplification systems such as hearing aids and other implantable devices used.
- Keep in mind that in otitis media, the sound cannot reach the inner ear and the auditory nerve because it interrupted, in a middle ear that broken, damaged, or filled with fluid.
- They are communication hearing loss, which also arises when a problem in the exterior ear stops the path of sound, such as malformations,” warns the doctor.
- Although conventional hearing aids would be the right solution, these devices need to be held in the external ear and insert a part into the external auditory canal. That’s why modern digital rechargeable hearing aids have proven to be popular to hearing aid users because they are easy to use and have comfortable features.
- And that, is generally humid, supporting, or with a tendency to suppurate, which would worsen the situation, says Lavilla.
- Who continues: here the solution to bring the hearing directly to the auditory nerve. So bypassing the diseased middle ear, through the conduction systems of the bone pathway.
- As they hear implants, the advantage implanted behind the ear, and the external auditory canal is free and ventilated.
- Furthermore, when inserted into the bone, they transmit sound vibration with excellent fidelity.
- In children with temporary serous otitis, we use vibrators attached to the head through a headband. If the problem becomes permanent, an ear implant placed.
- This is done in children with ear malformations. And until they are four or five years old since, for these implants, a thickness of the cranial bone needed.
- So which they do not reach until this age, explains Lavilla.
- In cases where the auditory nerve moderately damaged, the so-called active implants are, for most authors, the most effective.
- Since they have a mechanism under which the skin vibrates. And providing a better response to high frequencies, fundamental to understand words and language.
- Some of them are percutaneous, and others leave the skin intact. Among the devices that leave the skin intact.
- The MED-El Bonebridge System is a transcutaneous active implant that not need to apply pressure to the surface for stimulation.
- It is comfortable and discreet to wear. So due to the small size of the audio processor, allowing 50 percent use per day.
