Find information on thousands of medical conditions and prescription drugs.

Hearing loss

A hearing impairment is a decrease in one's ability to hear (i.e. perceive auditory information). While some cases of hearing loss are reversible with medical treatment, many lead to a permanent disability (often called deafness). more...

Home
Diseases
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
Hairy cell leukemia
Hallermann Streiff syndrome
Hallux valgus
Hantavirosis
Hantavirus pulmonary...
HARD syndrome
Harlequin type ichthyosis
Harpaxophobia
Hartnup disease
Hashimoto's thyroiditis
Hearing impairment
Hearing loss
Heart block
Heavy metal poisoning
Heliophobia
HELLP syndrome
Helminthiasis
Hemangioendothelioma
Hemangioma
Hemangiopericytoma
Hemifacial microsomia
Hemiplegia
Hemoglobinopathy
Hemoglobinuria
Hemolytic-uremic syndrome
Hemophilia A
Hemophobia
Hemorrhagic fever
Hemothorax
Hepatic encephalopathy
Hepatitis
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis B
Hepatitis C
Hepatitis D
Hepatoblastoma
Hepatocellular carcinoma
Hepatorenal syndrome
Hereditary amyloidosis
Hereditary angioedema
Hereditary ataxia
Hereditary ceroid...
Hereditary coproporphyria
Hereditary elliptocytosis
Hereditary fructose...
Hereditary hemochromatosis
Hereditary hemorrhagic...
Hereditary...
Hereditary spastic...
Hereditary spherocytosis
Hermansky-Pudlak syndrome
Hermaphroditism
Herpangina
Herpes zoster
Herpes zoster oticus
Herpetophobia
Heterophobia
Hiccups
Hidradenitis suppurativa
HIDS
Hip dysplasia
Hirschsprung's disease
Histoplasmosis
Hodgkin lymphoma
Hodgkin's disease
Hodophobia
Holocarboxylase...
Holoprosencephaly
Homocystinuria
Horner's syndrome
Horseshoe kidney
Howell-Evans syndrome
Human parvovirus B19...
Hunter syndrome
Huntington's disease
Hurler syndrome
Hutchinson Gilford...
Hutchinson-Gilford syndrome
Hydatidiform mole
Hydatidosis
Hydranencephaly
Hydrocephalus
Hydronephrosis
Hydrophobia
Hydrops fetalis
Hymenolepiasis
Hyperaldosteronism
Hyperammonemia
Hyperandrogenism
Hyperbilirubinemia
Hypercalcemia
Hypercholesterolemia
Hyperchylomicronemia
Hypereosinophilic syndrome
Hyperhidrosis
Hyperimmunoglobinemia D...
Hyperkalemia
Hyperkalemic periodic...
Hyperlipoproteinemia
Hyperlipoproteinemia type I
Hyperlipoproteinemia type II
Hyperlipoproteinemia type...
Hyperlipoproteinemia type IV
Hyperlipoproteinemia type V
Hyperlysinemia
Hyperparathyroidism
Hyperprolactinemia
Hyperreflexia
Hypertension
Hypertensive retinopathy
Hyperthermia
Hyperthyroidism
Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Hypoaldosteronism
Hypocalcemia
Hypochondrogenesis
Hypochondroplasia
Hypoglycemia
Hypogonadism
Hypokalemia
Hypokalemic periodic...
Hypoparathyroidism
Hypophosphatasia
Hypopituitarism
Hypoplastic left heart...
Hypoprothrombinemia
Hypothalamic dysfunction
Hypothermia
Hypothyroidism
Hypoxia
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Medicines

If the hearing loss occurs at a young age, it may interfere with the acquisition of spoken language and social development. Hearing aids and cochlear implants may alleviate some of the problems caused by hearing impairment, but are often insufficient. People who have hearing impairments, especially those who develop a hearing problem later in life, often require support and technical adaptations as part of the rehabilitation process.

Causes

There are four major causes of hearing loss: genetic, disease processes affecting the ear, medication and physical trauma.

Genetic

Hearing loss can be inherited. Both dominant and recessive genes exist which can cause mild to profound impairment. If a family has a dominant gene for deafness it will persist across generations because it will manifest itself in the offspring even if it is inherited from only one parent. If a family had genetic hearing impairment caused by a recessive gene it will not always be apparent as it will have to be passed onto offspring from both parents.

Dominant and recessive hearing impairment can be syndromic or nonsyndromic. Recent gene mapping has identified dozens of nonsyndromic dominant (DFNA#) and recessive (DFNB#) forms of deafness.

  • The most common type of congenital hearing impairment in developed countries is DFNB1, also known as Connexin 26 deafness or GJB2-related deafness.
  • The most common dominant syndromic forms of hearing impairment include Stickler syndrome and Waardenburg syndrome.
  • The most common recessive syndromic forms of hearing impairment are Pendred syndrome, Large vestibular aqueduct syndrome and Usher syndrome.

Disease or illness

  • Measles may result in auditory nerve damage
  • Meningitis may damage the auditory nerve or the cochlea
  • Autoimmune disease has only recently been recognised as a potential cause for cochlear damage. Although probably rare, it is possible for autoimmune processes to target the cochlea specifically, without symptoms affecting other organs. Wegener's granulomatosis is one of the autoimmune conditions that may precipiate hearing loss.
  • Presbyacusis is deafness due to loss of perception to high tones, mainly in the elderly. It is considered a degenerative process, and it is poorly understood why some elderly people develop presbyacusis while others do not.
  • Mumps (Epidemic parotitis) may result in profound sensorineural hearing loss (90 dB or more), unilateral (one ear) or bilateral (both ears).
  • Adenoids that do not disappear by adolescence may continue to grow and may obstruct the Eustachian tube, causing conductive hearing impairment and nasal infections that can spread to the middle ear.
  • AIDS and ARC patients frequently experience auditory system anomalies.
  • HIV (and subsequent opportunistic infections) may directly affect the cochlea and central auditory system.
  • Chlamydia may cause hearing loss in newborns to whom the disease has been passed at birth.
  • Fetal alcohol syndrome is reported to cause hearing loss in up to 64% of infants born to alcoholic mothers, from the ototoxic effect on the developing fetus plus malnutrition during pregnancy from the excess alcohol intake.
  • Premature birth results in sensorineural hearing loss approximately 5% of the time.
  • Syphilis is commonly transmitted from pregnant women to their fetuses, and about a third of the infected children will eventually become deaf.
  • Otosclerosis is a hardening of the stapes (or stirrup) in the middle ear and causes conductive hearing loss.

Read more at Wikipedia.org


[List your site here Free!]


Hereditary Hearing Loss and Its Syndromes (Oxford Monographs on Medical Genetics) $149.30 Counseling in Audiologic Practice : Helping Patients and Families Adjust to Hearing Loss $53.09
Medical-Legal Evaluation of Hearing Loss $84.00 Hearing in Aging $9.30
A Quiet World : Living with Hearing Loss $1.22 Ototoxic Drugs Exposed: Prescription Drugs and Other Chemicals That Can (and Do) Damage Our Ears $39.99
Cochlear Hearing Loss $46.92 The Hearing-Impaired Child: Infancy Through High School Years $8.00
Listen With the Heart: Relationships and Hearing Loss $13.50 Mayo Clinic on Hearing: Strategies for Managing Hearing Loss, Dizziness and Other Ear Problems $0.05

A study of prognostic factors in sudden hearing loss
Abstract We investigated the prognostic significance of the presence or absence of vertigo and tinnitus, the timing of the initiation of treatment, ...
Gene therapy for hearing loss
Heard the joke about the older gentleman who--convinced that his wife was losing her hearing--repeatedly asks, "What's for dinner?" Frustrated ...
Primary care approach to hearing loss: the hidden disability
Abstract We report the results of a survey designed to investigate audiologic referral patterns of primary care physicians and, more specifically, ...
Detecting hearing loss in infants: a parent's guide to hearing and language milestones
Deafness is one of the most common occurrences affecting newborns; an average of three per every thousand are born with a significant hearing loss each ...
Magnesium treatment for sudden hearing loss
Nageris BI, Ulanovski D, Attias J. Ann Otol Rhilol Laryngol 2004;113:672-675. Magnesium treatment has been repeatedly shown to reduce the incidence ...
Evaluating differences in demographics, services, and outcomes for vocational rehabilitation consumers with hearing loss versus consumers with other disabilities
Millions of Americans who are of working age experience a hearing loss, yet they have relatively low levels of participation in the vocational rehabilitation ...
Hear! Hear! Are you one of the millions headed for premature hearing loss? Here's how to keep your ears open and healthy in this noisy world
Lawn mowers, hair dryers, movie trailers, car alarms, jet engines, even squeaky toys ... there are so many perpetrators of acoustic turbulence that we barely notice them anymore. Or is it that we
Potential consequences of unilateral hearing loss
In the past, doctors and audiologists usually reassured parents of a child with unilateral hearing loss (hearing loss in only one ear) that speech and ...

Home Contact Resources Exchange Links ebay