Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Apr 12.
doi: 10.1007/s00405-025-09355-3. Online ahead of print.

A novel approach to the follow up of children with otitis media with effusion: wideband absorbance findings

Melis Keskin Yıldız  1 , Gamze Atay  2 , Esra Kutsal Mergen  3 , Songül Aksoy  4 , Bilgehan Böke  5
Affiliations

A novel approach to the follow up of children with otitis media with effusion: wideband absorbance findings

Melis Keskin Yıldız et al. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol. .

Abstract

Purpose: Otitis media with effusion (OME) is one of the most common childhood diseases. It is recommended to use tympanometry in addition to otoscopy and/or pneumatic otoscopy for the diagnosis and follow-up of OME. Clinitians are using Wideband absorbance (WBA), which is one of the methods of evaluating the middle ear in the diagnosis of OME, more widely.

Methods: The relationship between the changes in the examination findings obtained by otoscopy and pneumatic otoscopy and the findings of WBA in the monthly follow-ups performed during the three-month period of children diagnosed with OME, was examined. In the study, 48 ears of 26 individuals aged 24-71 month who were diagnosed with OME were evaluated. Otoscopy, pneumatic otoscopy, 226 Hz tympanometry and WBA measurements were performed at the initial, first, second and third month examinations. The relationship between the difference between consecutive measurements was examined because it was thought that consecutive measurements might be more significant in the relationship between measurements. The Spearman test was used to determine whether there was a relationship between WBA and otoscopic and pneumatic otoscopic examination results. For assessing parameters where there was a significant difference between the groups compared, the variables were assessed using Kruskal-Wallis analysis of variance. The Dunn test was used for post hoc testing.

Results: The change observed with both otoscopy and pneumatic otoscopy between the initial and first month control could not be adequately determined by 226 Hz tympanometry, but the change in the amount absorbance at 2520 Hz and 3175 Hz was moderately correlated with the examination findings. However, it was observed that the change between the first and the second follow-up examinations was significant at the frequency range of 226-630 Hz in WBA and the change between the second and third months was significant at the frequency range of 226-4000 Hz in WBA.

Conclusions: The findings obtained in the study show that, 226 Hz tympanometry may be insufficient to reflect the change in examination findings while WBA can provide more detailed information to support the examination findings during the follow-up period as well as the diagnosis of OME.

Keywords: Absorbance; Otitis media with effusion; Pneumatic otoscopy; Wideband absorbance; Wideband tympanometry.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflicts of interest: There are no conflicts of interest, financial, or otherwise.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Simon F, Haggard M, Rosenfeld RM, Jia H, Peer S, Calmels MN, Teissier N (2018) International consensus (ICON) on management of otitis media with effusion in children. Eur Ann Otorhinolaryngol Head Neck Dis 135(1):33–39 - DOI
    1. Vanneste P, Page C (2019) Otitis media with effusion in children: pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment. A review. J Otol 14(2):33–39 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Rosenfeld RM, Shin JJ, Schwartz SR, Coggins R, Gagnon L, Hackell JM, Poe DS (2016) Clinical practice guideline: otitis media with effusion (update). Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg 154:1–41
    1. Margolis RH, Hunter LL, Giebink GS (1994) Tympanometric evaluation of middle ear function in children with otitis media. Annals Otology Rhinology Laryngology 103:34–38 - DOI
    1. Ellison JC, Gorga M, Cohn E, Fitzpatrick D, Sanford CA, Keefe DH (2012) Wideband acoustic transfer functions predict middle-ear effusion. Laryngoscope 122(4):887–894 - DOI - PubMed - PMC

LinkOut - more resources