In children, congenital deafness presents not infrequently. The majority of cases are sensorineural in nature and congenital conductive deafness is far less common. The causes range from abnormalties and fixation of ossicles, ankylosed malleo-incudal joint and absence of one or more ossicles. We describe a case of congenital ossicular abnormality, presenting with conductive deafness.
One hundred and fifty-five children with childhood deafness were examined over a period of 4 years in order to assess the aetiology of hearing disorder. In 21 (13%) children, deafness was a sequel of meningitis. Perinatal pathology accounted for 34 (22%) cases. The aetiology of deafness was unknown in 44 (28.4%) children. The percentage of unknown causes can be reduced if the deafness is detected early. Hearing loss was diagnosed only in 30 (19%) children by the age of 2 years. The early detection of deafness can be achieved by screening the high risk infants and educating the general practitioners and health assistants.
One hundred and sixty-five children from the school for the deaf were screened to find out the aetiology of deafness. The screening included routine ophthalmological examination. Aetiology was unknown in 33 children (20%). Prenatal infection was found to be the cause of deafness in 61 cases (36.96%). Rubella eye signs were found in 59 children (35.76%), whereas the history of rubella infection during the first trimester of pregnancy was found in only 33 of these cases (55.93%). Perinatal complications were seen in 20 children (12.12%). Twenty children (12.12%) had meningitis during their early childhood period. Routine ophthalmological examination helped us to pick up cases with rubella eye signs. Ophthalmological examination should be included as part of any study done to find out the cause of deafness.
Despite the commonly observed condition of middle and inner ear barotrauma among divers, there is little evidence of insidious and permanent development of sensorineural hearing loss associated with diving. An audiometric survey was performed on a group of 120 divers and 166 non divers from the Royal Malaysian Naval Base in Lumut, West Malaysia between July to December 1991. The results of this survey revealed that insidious development of high frequency sensorineural hearing loss may be associated with diving. At frequencies 4000, 6000 and 8000 Hz the divers had higher mean hearing levels than non divers and their hearing at those frequencies seemed to deteriorate faster. The etiology of this insidious hearing loss is multifactorial and may be related to inner ear barotrauma, decompression sickness or noise-induced deafness.