Evaluation of immittance testing for the identification of middle ear pathology in South African mineworkers.

Abstract

The study evaluated immittance measures, specifically tympanometry and acoustic reflex testing, for the identification of middle ear pathology among South African mineworkers. The outcomes of medical history reviews, otoscopy, tympanometry, acoustic reflex testing and pure-tone screening audiometry were considered for 181 gold mine workers, within the context of the employer’s medical surveillance programme for noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL). Different screening procedures were compared with regards to the ability to identify middle ear problems Acoustic reflexes were found to be too sensitive for use in this population. Otoscopy identified 49.7 per cent of workers as having active or previous middle ear problems while tympanometry identified 27.1 percent of workers. The workers all had normal hearing and would not have been identified by normal audiometric screening procedures.