Use of hearing aids in the management of children with cleft palate.

OBJECTIVE: The incidence of otitis media with effusion in children with cleft palate is high. There are numerous reports looking at early insertion of ventilation tubes (VT) with associated complications. We believe that this is the first paper that discusses the use of hearing aids (HA) as the first line of management.

METHODS: Children with cleft palate are managed in a special multidisciplinary clinic in our hospital. Detailed records of these children are maintained. We studied the otological management of 70 children with repaired cleft palate.

RESULTS: 12 of the 70 (17.1%) had VT inserted, 17 (24.3%) were provided with HA, 14 (20%) had both grommets and HA and 27 (38.6%) had neither. Of the 31 (44.3%) children who had HA, 16 (51.6%) had good compliance with the HA. The hearing, speech and language developments in these children have been good. Twelve of the 70 patients (17.1%) have had one or more otological complications. These were significantly higher in children treated with VT.

CONCLUSION: We have successfully treated 62.9% of our patients with non-surgical intervention, and show a low incidence of long term complications.