EVALUATION OF MIDDLE EAR RESONANS FREQUENCY IN CHILDREN WITH CEREBRAL PALSY
1Başkent Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, KBB ve BBC Anabilim Dalı, Ankara, Türkiye Objective: Cerebral palsy (CP) is characterized by abnormal muscle tone, posture and movement. It is possible that changes in swallowing functions of children with CP may affect eustachian functions. This may cause changes in the middle ear resonance frequency (RF), an important parameter of multifrequency tympanometry. The aim of this study was to determine middle ear RF values of children with CP.Material and Methods: A total of 60 children (120 ears) aged 5-15 years with no hearing loss and normal otoscopic examination were included in the study.. Study group consist of 30 children with CP and the control group consisted of 30 children with similar age and gender characteristics. The RF values obtained from both ears of all participants were evaulated.
Results: Children with CP had a right ear RF average of 981 ± 369 Hz and a left ear RF average of 1099 ± 398 Hz. The right ear RF average of the control group was 1080 ± 328 Hz and the left ear RF average was 1190 ± 296 Hz. There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of RF values.
Conclusion: This study showed that the RF values of children with CP is not different from the RF values of healthy children in their age group. From these findings, it may be said that the multifrequency tympanometry can be used in the patient population with CP in order to differentiate the known diseases that cause changes in RF values such as otosclerosis and otitis media with effusion.
Keywords : Resonance frequency, multifrequency tympanometry, eustachian tube, cerebral palsy