FEASIBILITY OF OTOACOUSTIC EMISSIONS AS A HEARING SCREEN FOLLOWING GROMMET INSERTION

Following grommet insertion, it is important to establish that there i s no underlying sensorineural hearing impairment. In this hospital, ap proximately 1000 grommet insertions are performed each year, thus gene rating a heavy workload of review appointments for ENT and audiology. The present study investigates the efficacy of performing evoked otoac oustic emissions screening on 108 children when they were ready to lea ve the hospital following grommet insertion. Bilateral normal otoacous tic emissions were recorded in 32% (35 children), although 99% (105) o f the 106 children attending the outpatient review appointment had nor mal hearing sensitivity. If normal hearing thresholds were established immediately following surgery, it can be argued that this obviates th e need for an outpatient review appointment; however, in this study on ly one-third of children could be discharged after surgery. Otoacousti c emissions therefore does not represent an effective screen at this s tage.