Sudhakar Rao M. S, Bharadwaj, Malige Rajkamal
BACKGROUND Hearing impairment due to acute meningitis among the high-risk cases is a dreadful condition affecting development and maturation of auditory system which interferes with normal development of speech and language. Early detection of this hearing impairment and management is the key for avoiding this morbidity. The aim of the study is to assess the status of hearing impairment in paediatric patients who suffered acute meningitis. MATERIALS AND METHODS A prospective BERA study in children who were treated and discharged for acute meningitis from paediatrics department conducted in the otorhinolaryngology department, VIMS, Bellary, Karnataka, India, from December-2016 to July-2017 on simple random basis of selection in both sexes. RESULTS This prospective study statistically shows that there are significant BERA changes noted in acute meningitis children having variation in the graph peaks & inter wave latencies, suggesting varying degrees of hearing loss with significant percentage of disability. CONCLUSIONS Hearing is not a visible disability. It commonly goes undetected until it affects the child’s communication in the form of speech and language or performance at home, school or in the society. This emphasizes the need for screening/detecting the cases treated for acute meningitis for the hearing impairment as well as any other high risk paediatric case, as early intervention helps the child in acquiring better speech language and communication as personality development and also it helps in social, and vocational rehabilitation.
