Current status of clinical otology in China

Abstract

There are professional otologists in 126 college affiliated hospitals and large hospitals. These hospitals are distributed in the large cities all over China. The treatment of otological diseases was relatively confined to these cities. There are obvious differences in terms of level of clinical services provided and the equipment available in these hospitals. Every year patients with otological diseases account for 20.2%(275/1360) of all inpatients in the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University. Chronic simple suppurative otitis media and cholesteatoma represented 66.6% of all otological diseases. It implied that chronic suppurative otitis media was still the main disease of surgical treatment in otology. Attic cholesteatoma accounted for 66.5%; adhesion cholesteatoma accounted for 33.5%, the latter being associated with high morbidity of secretory otitis media and inadequate treatment. Morbidity of intracranial complications was 2%. Patients without intracranial complications were given Stage 1 or 2 tympanoplasty. There are 17, 700, 000 people with hearing disabilities in China. Hearing aids are widely used. Patients who had multi channel artificial cochlea implantation were very very few. High cost is the main obstacle to this technique. Aminoglycoside induced deafness was very rare. People will rather gradually pay much more attention to anti-cancer drugs induced sensorineural deafness.