IS THE VESTIBULAR SYSTEM AFFECTED BY MIDDLE-EAR EFFUSION

The association between middle ear effusion (MEE) and vestibular patho logy is controversial. To investigate this point, 50 children with MEE scheduled for myringotomy and grommet, and 20 normal hearing children without MEE scheduled for adenotonsillectomy, underwent vestibular in vestigations by craniocorpography and rotatory chair, preoperatively a nd postoperatively. Most of the correlations, preoperative vs. postope rative, and study vs. control groups, were nonsignificant. Assuming th at serous labyrinthitis is responsible for vestibular involvement in M EE, the lack of significant vestibular pathology in our study could pr obably be explained by the fact that no children with acute otitis med ia episodes or otalgic were included.