Arnold Chiari Malformation: the Otological Assessment as an Objective Criteria for Surgical Treatment

Overview

The aim of this study is to compare the value of multifrequency tympanometry between patients with surgical indication of treatment for a Chiari type I malformation and healthy volunteers.

Prevalence of Chiari type I malformation in population is between 0.1% and 0.5%. Chiari type I malformation is responsive in perturbation of the cerebro spinal fluid flow at the cranio-cervical junction. Those perturbations caused headaches, and various otological symptoms (dizziness, tinnitus, vertigo, nystagmus, hypoacousis…). The surgical treatment consists in an occipital craniotomy to restore the cerebro spinal fluid flow at the cranio-cervical junction. Symptoms are due to increasing of the pressure in the cerebellar fossa. 81% of the patients with Chiari type 1 malformation suffer of sub clinical otological perturbations especially alteration of the vestibular test. In the literature, hearing performance could be normalized after posterior fossa decompression. Furthermore, the multifrequency tympanometry measurement and particularly the width of conductance tympanograms at 2 kHz shows that variations of the cerebro spinal fluid pressure have consequences on the pressure of the perilymph. Investigator's hypothesis is that tympanometry (conductance) could be an effective test to show the variation of the cerebro spinal fluid pressure.

Conditions

Interventions

Eligibility

Locations (1)

Outcomes