Waiting for Ear Tubes Won't Affect Child Development

The implanted devices are often used to ease persistent fluid build-up.

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
Wednesday, January 17, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

WEDNESDAY, Jan. 17 (HealthDay News) -- Parents don't have to rush to make a decision about whether or not to have ventilating tubes placed in the ears of a child who suffers from persistent fluid in the ear.

That's the conclusion of a new study published in the Jan. 18 New England Journal of Medicine. It found no significant or lasting hearing-linked developmental delays in affected children who did not have ear tubes inserted right away.

"Parents don't need to rush into tubes on the basis of persistent fluid," said the study's lead author, Dr. Jack Paradise, professor emeritus of pediatrics at the Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh.

"Parents can be reassured that if their child has a collection of fluid behind the ear drum during the first three years of life, we are now sure that the mild to moderate hearing loss associated with that fluid does not have any effect on language development, behavior, later learning or academic performance," added Dr. Stephen Berman, a professor of pediatrics at the University of Colorado and the Children's Hospital Denver, and past president of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Berman wrote an accompanying editorial in the same issue of the journal.

Each year, U.S. doctors implant between 300,000 and 500,000 ventilating ear tubes in young patients, according to Berman, who estimates the surgery costs between $3,500 and $5,000. He added that up to 80 percent of these surgeries are performed because of middle ear effusion (fluid in the ear). There have been concerns that delaying such procedures could affect language development and learning, however.

In the past, physicians recommended the surgery because several retrospective studies did suggest an association between fluid in the ear and developmental impairments.

"We were worried that the fluid would delay language development and cause problems with attention and behavior," said Berman, who added that, "This study clearly shows that putting the tubes in doesn't have an effect on those problems."