Objective: To analyze the effects of obstructive sleep apnea hypopnea syndrome on hearing among children.
Methods: One hundred and forty three apnea children proved with overnight polysomnography received pure tone audiometry, acoustic impedance test, and lateral nasopharyngeal airway X-ray. Hearing threshold level and blood oxygen's saturation, apnea hypopnea index were analyzed.
Results: Among the 127 cases,63 cases had type C or B tympanograms, and 33 of them had lifted hearing threshold level. The remaining 64 cases had normal hearing and tympanograms. It was found correlation between the A/N ratio and blood oxygen's saturation, and no correlation between the A/N ratio and average of hearing threshold level. There was no correlation between AHI and average of hearing threshold level of each group. Hearing level can be improved after adenoidectomy or adenotonsillectomy.
Conclusions: The upper airway obstruction due to adenotonsillar enlargement is common in children. It also affects the middle-ear impedance. Although short -term and mild degree of hypoxemia has few influence on hearing threshold level, it may affect cochlear function.