Tympanometric and auditory brainstem response findings among children with down syndrome

Background: The Worldwide prevalence of Down syndrome children with hearing loss is 38–78% with conductive hearing loss accounting for the majority of cases and a documented 20%. Otitis media with effusion (OME) is common in 2-year-olds. Objective:  To determine the tympanometric and auditory brainstem response findings among children with Down syndrome. Methodology: Cross sectional observational study was conducted to determine the tympanometric and auditory brainstem response findings among children with Down syndrome on a sample of 98 patients both Male and Female with Non-probability purposive sampling technique. The study was performed at the Children's Hospital and Institute of Child Health in Lahore. The duration of this study was 6 months, from January 2023 to June 2023. Children aged 1 to 6 years were included in this study. A self-structured questionnaire, tympanometry, and auditory brainstem response test were used to accumulate the data. The data was analysed using the SPSS version 24.0 software package. Results: Among the 98 DS patients, there were 52 (70.41%) male patients and 46 (29.59%) female patients. The majority of patients were in the age group 1-3 years, which is 61 (65.31%) in number. From the analysis of the tympanometry test, it was found that the majority of patients had type B tympanograms, which is 55 (56.1%), and type C tympanograms were also shown in 28 (28.6%) patients. Results of BAEP showed that most patients had moderate-degree hearing loss 70 (71.1%) and 15 (15.3%) had normal hearing. Conclusion:  This study concluded that the majority of children had moderate degree conductive hearing loss rather than mild to severe degree mixed and sensorineural hearing loss.   Key words:  Down syndrome, Pediatric Hearing Loss, Tympanometry, Auditory Brainstem Response, Otitis Media with Effusion