Hearing levels and age in cleft palate patients

Tonal audiometry was used to compare hearing levels in patients with bilateral cleft lip and palate (BCLP) (57 patients), unilateral cleft lip and palate (UCLP) (124 patients) and isolated cleft palate (ICP) (62 patients), and according to age groups. Patients with isolated cleft palate showed greater improvement in hearing level with age than patients with UCLP and BCLP; as adults they showed the lowest frequency of ears with hearing level of less than 40 dB, and the highest frequency of ears with hearing levels of 11-20 dB. Patients with BCLP had a higher frequency of ears with a hearing level of 21-40 dB during early childhood and adult age than patients with ICP. Patients with UCLP and BCLP showed a slower decrease with age in the frequency of ears with hearing loss than patients with ICP; the hearing level in patients with UCLP and BCLP improved only in groups with hearing levels of 21-40 dB, while those with hearing levels above 40 dB showed no significant improvement with age. Conservative therapeutic methods for normalization of the hearing level and middle ear state were found to be inefficient in the cleft palate population Thus, early surgical treatment (ventilation tube insertion) appears to be the therapy of choice.