Fortunately, the hearing loss is usually neither severe nor permanent, but serious concerns exist about whether this hearing loss causes delays in development of language and intellectual skills.
Antibiotic treatment is effective in most cases.
When medical therapy fails, surgical treatment is used to correct the hearing loss and reduce the number and the severity of recurrent ear infections. As in many areas of medicine there is disagreement about what is proper treatment. However, it is important to remember that the information presented herein about surgical treatment applies only to those patients for whom medical treatment is no longer effective. The middle ear is the small space between the ear drum and the inner ear. These nerve impulses carry sound information to the brain.