Hearing and Otitis Media with Effusion in Young Adults with Cleft Lip and Palate

Conclusion: Speech recognition in noise is affected when otitis media with effusion (OME) is present in young adults with unilateral cleft lip and palate.

Objective: The objective of this study was to describe the hearing and performance on auditory tasks of young adults with unilateral cleft lip and palate as compared to young adults without cleft lip and palate.

Methods: Twenty-six young adults with unilateral cleft lip and palate and 23 young adults without cleft lip and palate participated in the study. Pure tone audiometry, tympanometry, speech recognition in noise at the word and sentence level, and masking level difference were examined.

Results: Results revealed elevated hearing thresholds in the young adults with cleft lip and palate as compared with young adults without cleft lip and palate. No differences concerning speech recognition in noise and binaural processing were observed between the young adults with cleft lip and palate and those without. However, there was poorer speech recognition performance in those adults with unilateral cleft lip and palate and OME on the day of testing as compared with young adults with unilateral cleft lip and palate without OME on the day of testing.