The Loudness of Suctioning in the Ear Canal

Aim To determine the loudness of suctioning in the ear canal with different-sized suctions and various mediums. Aural microsuctioning is commonly used in the otolaryngologist's office setting for cerumen removal and aural toilet. We hypothesize that the intensity of the sound would increase with increasing viscosity of the medium and increasing suction diameter. Methods The intensity of the sound generated was measured while suctioning air, water, and yogurt on cadaveric temporal bones with size 7 and 5 Frazier suctions. This was performed with one measurer and one operator. Under otomicroscopy, the operator would suction the ear canal and the measurer would record the intensity of the sound with a sound decibel meter placed at the lateral and posterior external auditory canal. Data was collected with two separate operators and measurers to aid with inter-rater reliability. Results There was a total of 240 repeated observations (10 cadavers, 3 mediums, 2 suction devices; 2 investigators). The range of the maximum peak intensity ranged from 63.0 dB to 100.0 dB. The lowest peak intensity of decibels was recorded in air with the size 5 Frazier suction; and the highest measured was with the size 5 Frazier suction in yogurt. Statistically significant differences were found only in the measurements in air. Conclusion Our investigation found that increasing peak sound intensities were generated by increasing the viscosity of the fluid medium that was being suctioned. However, the smaller sized diameter suction actually generated louder sound intensities than the larger diameter suction with higher viscosity fluid media, but this was not statistically significant.