Hearing loss due to wax impaction.

BACKGROUND

Deafness and hearing impairment are major causes of disability in developing countries. The World Health Organization (WHO) has pointed out that much deafness and hearing impairment is avoidable or remediable. A good proportion of patients presenting in the Ear, Nose, Throat, Head and Neck (E,N,T,H &N) Surgery Clinic of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital (UBTH),Benin City, have ear wax impaction causing hearing loss.

OBJECTIVE

This study was therefore carried out to determine the prevalence of wax impaction among the aetiological factors for hearing loss, the type and severity of hearing loss due to wax impaction in our hospital.

METHODS

Patients who met the inclusion criteria for the study were enrolled and Pure Tone Audiometry (PTA) threshold for each ear with wax impaction was determined at 250Hz, 500Hz, 1KHz, 2KHz, 4KHz and 8KHz by air conduction, Also bone conduction measurements were obtained at 500Hz, 1KHz, 2KHz and 4KHz.

RESULTS

Forty-two out of 471 ears with hearing loss had wax impaction in this study; giving a prevalence of 8.9% for wax impaction among the aetiological factors for hearing loss. The result showed that mild hearing loss was the average and predominant type of hearing loss in terms of severity. Pure tone audiograms showed conductive hearing loss in all the patients, while 8 out of the 42 ears had a super-imposed sensorineural component, which gave a mixed hearing loss forthe ears.

CONCLUSION

Wax impaction is a relatively common cause of hearing loss, usually of the mild conductive type. Appropriate strategies should be put in place for its management.