Hearing loss and language retardation in children with microtia.

Thirty four children with microtia and meatal atresia (unilateral 30, bilateral 4) were examined to determine their hearing ability and language development.The 30 with unilateral abnormalities showed a conductive hearing loss of 45.0-72.5dB in the affected ear. The nonaffected ear in 21 out of the 30 children showed normal hearing (a loss of less than 20dB) and in 9 the hearing loss was more than 30dB in the normal ear.Eight children with unilateral microtia and a hearing loss of more than 40dB had delayed language development.The four children with bilateral microtia showed no language retardation despite a hearing loss of 40.0-76.0dB in both ears because of the early use of hearing aids.Bone-conduction-hearing aids were more effective than air-conduction-hearing aids for children with microtia.