RAISED ABR THRESHOLD AFTER SUCTION ASPIRATION OF GLUE FROM THE MIDDLE-EAR - 3 CASE-STUDIES

Between 1991 and 1993, 13 children (25 hearing ears) underwent recordi ngs of the auditory brain stem response (ABR) under a general anaesthe tic. The anaesthetic technique was similar for each child. Fourteen of these ears had fluid aspirated after myringotomy with insertion of gr ommets prior to the auditory brain stem response investigation. On sub sequent hearing assessment six of these 14 ears (43 per cent) showed c lear evidence of a threshold shift of 15 dB or greater. Eleven ears ha d either dry myringotomies or did not have a myringotomy prior to ABR and none of these showed evidence of a temporary threshold shift. Usin g Fisher's Exact probability test this difference is significant (p = 0.034). We feel it is important to report these observations so that u nexpected high ABR thresholds following aspiration of glue are interpr eted with caution.