Clinico-demographic study of otitis media with effusion in different age groups

Background: Otitis Media with Effusion is mainly a disease of childhood. But it can also occur in adults. It can present with various symptoms like difficulty in hearing, blocked sensation in the ear, earache, tinnitus etc. Young children are often diagnosed late due to their inability to express hearing difficulty, and are often diagnosed accidentally. Appearance of the tympanic membrane can also be varying among patients. There may be retraction, dull appearance and change in colour, or reduced mobility. Fluid level or air bubble can also be present in the middle ear behind the tympanic membrane.Aim: To study the demographic profile of the patients diagnosed with OME and to determine the variations in the signs and symptoms of OME in different age groups.Method: This is an observational study. It was conducted on all the patients attending the OPD at a tertiary hospital, and diagnosed with OME over the course of one year. The diagnosis was made after proper history taking and clinical examination and with the aid of audiometry and tympanometry. An effort was made to map out the demographic profile of all the patients diagnosed with OME, and to study the variations in the signs and symptoms of OME across different age groups.Result:In the analysis of parameters it was found that statistically significant higher number of cases were children (< 10 years of age). Number of male was more than female in children but it was equal in adult. Significantly more number of children in the study had bilateral involvement, but in adolescent and adult there was no statistical difference between the incidence of bilateral and unilateral involvement. Difficulty in hearing and heaviness in ears were the two most common presenting symptoms with addition of tinnitus in adult group. Most common appearance of the tympanic membrane was dull in all the ages.Conclusion:In the present study it is evident that the Otitis media with media (OME) is much more common in pediatric population and has a little male preponderance, which corroborates the consensus of the word literature. The present study also corroborates the existing knowledge on some aspect the disease like presenting symptoms (difficulty in hearing and block sensation being the commonest) appearance of tympanic membrane or degree of hearing loss.An effort was made in the present study to compare some aspect of the disease among the patients of different age group.While corroborating most of the issues regarding OME with the existing literature, present study indicates some differences in presentation and diagnostic features in different age groups