[Hearing disorders in patients of older age groups].

Results of the investigation of hearing of elderly people living in nursing houses in Saint-Petersburg, obtained through a tonal threshold audiometry are described in this article. The analysis of hearing-loss prevalence depending on the age, the hearing-loss degrees, the presence of complaints about the hearing loss are also represented as well as the discussion about the possible causes of hearing loss (accompanying somatic diseases, working in noisy environment, hearing diseases inheritance).

[Rehabilitation in elderly people with hearing loss].

Data about rehabilitation in hearing impaired elderly people living in nursing houses in Saint-Petersburg are presented in the article. Hearing aid demand depending on age and degree of hearing loss is analyzed and problems of electro acoustic correction of hearing loss and possibilities to increase its efficacy in studied age group are discussed as well.

[Peculiarities of hearing prosthetics for the patients suffering tympanophonia].

The objective of the present study was to estimate the influence of fractal tones (ZEN program) on chronic subjective tympanophonia in the patients using hearing aid apparatuses. A total of 20 subjects at the age from 30 to 69 years suffering tympanophonia in combination with grade I-IV loss of hearing were available for examination with the use of the following methods: analysis of complaints and medical histories, evaluation of ENT functioning, impedancometry, tonal threshold, suprathreshold and speech audiometry, psychoacoustic noise measurement, analysis of THI and TRQ questionnaires. The results of the questionnaire studies show that the use of the ZEN program and hearing aid apparatuses (Mind 440, WIDEX) decreased the intensity of tympanophonia in 90% of the patients. The therapeutic effect of the ZEN program in the younger patients was higher than in the elder ones. The probability of positive action of fractal tones decreased with increasing scores when the assessment was based on the primary THI and TRQ questionnaires.

[Modern aspects of diagnosis of presbycusis and its treatment in elderly patients].

This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of tanakan used to treat tympanophonia in elderly women. The entire spectrum of modern audiological technique was employed to examine the patients. It was shown that tanakan therapy decreases intensity of typmanytis and improves speech hearing in aged patients. The results of the study give reason to recommend the treatment with tanakan for the elderly patients presenting with either presbiacusis or normal tonal hearing.

[The condition of the auditory tube in patients with chronic purulent otitis media as shown by computed tomography]. / Sostoianie slukhovoi truby u bol'nykh khronicheskim gnoinym srednim otitom po dannym komp'iuternoi tomografii.

Computed tomography (CT) was made in 25 patients with otitis media purulenta chronica (OMPC). Of them 17 patients had meso- or mesoepitympanitis and 8 patients had the history of radical operations on the ear. At first, CT was made of the temporal bone without contrast medium, then with instillation of the contrast medium through the external acoustic meatus and tympanic cavity into the auditory tube. Native computer tomograms of the temporal bones of 43 persons without any middle ear pathology were used as control. Non-contrast computer tomograms showed air in the lumen of the bone part of the auditory tube of all the examinees. It was impossible to obtain the image of the cartilage part of the auditory tube. None of 25 OMPC patients showed the signs of peritubal pneumatisation while it was registered in 14 healthy controls. By CT data, 14 of 17 patients with perforative OMPC had passable auditory tube even in aggravated inflammatory process, 3 of them had unpassable one. All 8 patients after radical operation had unpassable auditory tube. Thus, the method of contrast computer tomography determines passability of the auditory tube in the direction from the tympanic cavity to the nasopharynx and specifies the level of obstruction that is important to know before hearing improving operations of tympanoplasty type. Evaluation of the drainage function of the auditory tube basing on the time of evacuation of the contrast medium from the tympanic cavity to the nasopharynx was declared useless.