Glue ear research and Deafness Research UK

Deafness Research UK is the UK's medical charity for deaf and hard of hearing people. Deafness Research UK continues to lead the way with research in glue ear research, by funding ground-breaking projects and working with the UK's top researchers in the field.

One current project, led by Professor Jeffrey Pearson, is investigating the link between gastric reflux (heartburn) and glue ear. This Newcastle-based project should increase understanding of the causes of glue ear and enable the development of new diagnostic tests, as well as treatments, which in the future could reduce the need for grommet operations (ventilators through the eardrum) currently the main treatment for the condition.

Deafness Research UK is also supporting a new Nottingham-based project, led by Professor John Birchall, investigating the possibility that bacteria do more than cause the recurrence of glue ear; they can also lead to rare complications such as nerve damage causing permanent deafness, and to damage of the tiny bones in the ear that transmit sound vibrations. New treatments that target the bacteria could potentially be used to remedy glue ear, and avoid further damage to hearing. It is hoped that new treatments being developed in other branches of medicine, that kill slow growing bacteria, could also be used to treat glue ear caused by bacteria in the ear. This also may reduce the need for surgery to insert grommets.

A completed project, supported by Deafness Research UK and supervised by Professor Mark Haggard (formerly at the MRC Institute of Hearing Research in Nottingham and now at Cambridge), looked into the best way of measuring the impact of glue ear. As well as analysing the patterns of communication tactics known to parents (as referred to in the press release), the study provided more secure evidence than was available that the impact of glue ear on children goes well beyond the acknowledged sign of hearing loss. This has led to a standard questionnaire as a clinical assessment tool able reliably and validly to measure outcomes other than hearing, thus filling a serious clinical gap. The short-form has already been translated into six other languages.

As a development of this work on outcomes, Deafness Research UK funded further research to track what happened to the children studied beyond the two years of the original project. The study considered a range of factors about each child's condition and the treatment they were given. It found that, other things being equal, children receiving an adenoidectomy were half as likely to need continuing care at the hospital ENT department, compared to children who had not received one. This result supports the use of adenoidectomy as a mainstream part of glue ear treatment as practised in Europe, although not in the UK and USA. These and other parts of the research programme are beginning to change practice and are likely to do so more in the years to come.

In addition to funding research, Deafness Research UK has some of the UK's best glue ear information resources, developed with help from its expert advisers. These are aimed at the public, teachers, health professionals and the media, and can be obtained through its free Information Service.

For more information, or to speak with one of the researchers, please contact:
Joanne Keane, Deafness Research UK Communications, phone 020 7837 8092, mobile 0779 2929 731 or email joanne.keane@deafnessresearch.org.uk.