The importance of acoustic impedance measurements in middle ear pathology during acute viral respiratory illness in the first year of life

The very high incidence of ME pathology in epidemic bronchiolitis prompted the systematic use of impedance measurement tests in a study of the otitic process. Data were assembled of 44 children admitted to the Paediatric Clinic with acute viral respiratory infection (in the last years). On account of the high incidence (97%), the precocity of occurrence (1–12 months), the slow rehabilitation and the frequency of relapses, the ME pathology in these children indicates the importance of a correct approach to the problems of relapsing otitis in infants. Patients were treated with aerosol therapy (mucolytic substance), nasal drops (with vasoconstrictors), and only in very serious cases with antibiotics. For the latter, cortisonic therapy is inadvisable, while it is absolutely necessary to follow up with periodic controls until the tympanogram becomes normal. The impedance findings (prevalent type B curves, with inability to evoke the stapedius reflex, over periods of several months) and their resolution in type AC or C curves led us to consider not only the organic problem, but also the functional hearing problem during the first year of life, and the possible long-term repercussion.