International Journal of Pediatric Otorhinolatyngology, 17 (1989) 163-170 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXW Elsevier 163 POR 00579 Screening for middle-ear disease in schools for hearing-impaired children Santie Meyer, Rene Hugo, Brenda Louw and R.J. Grimbeek Department of Speech Parhology and Audiology, Department of Statistics, University of Pretoria, Pretoria (South Africa) (Received 15 August 1988) (Revised version received 1 February 1989) (Accepted 3 February 1989) Key words: Middle-ear dysfunction; Prevalence; Deaf; Impedance testing; Racial influence zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedc Abstract zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA The aim of the study was to determine the prevalence of middle-ear dysfunction in a group of hearing-impaired children attending schools for the deaf. Two groups of subjects between the ages of 4 and 16 years were selected. Group 1 consists of Caucasian and Group 2 of Negroid children. Otoscopic examinations, impedance and pure tone testing were performed on each child. The results indicated a prevalence of 43% failures on the impedance tests in the Caucasian group and 18% failures in the Negroid group. Chronic problems like perforations, otorrhoea, etc. were more common in Group 2. The results also suggest the existence of differences in the prevalence of middle-ear dysfunction between normal and hearing-impaired children. Introduction ‘Review of the literature reveals surprisingly few articles which discuss diseases of the external and middle ear in students who are in schools for the deaf. This is somewhat surprising considering the vast literature devoted to early diagnosis of severe and profound hearing losses in children’ [12]. Even though almost 10 years have passed since this comment by Riding and co-workers, there is still very little information available regarding the prevalence Correspondence: B. Louw, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, Republic of South Africa. 0165-5876/89/% 03.50 0 1989 Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. (Biomedical Division)