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!]


Potential consequences of unilateral hearing loss
From Pediatrics for Parents, 8/1/04 by Judith E. Lieu

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 language would develop appropriately with one normally hearing ear. Some studies from the 1980s and 1990s suggested, however, that more children with unilateral hearing loss may have educational and / or behavioral problems, compared to their normally hearing peers. To learn more about whether unilateral hearing loss has an impact on the development of speech and language and educational achievement, I reviewed articles published between 1966 and 2003 that focused on this problem in children.

Speech and language delays were reported in some but not all studies that looked at toddlers, pre-school and school-age children. In one study that reported a delay in speech, the age at which toddlers spoke their first two-word sentence was delayed an average of five-months, even though the age at which they spoke their first word was not delayed. A study done in pre-school children reported language delays among the children with unilateral hearing loss, but did not describe what specific delays they had. Another study done in older children with severe-to-profound unilateral hearing loss (little if any usable hearing in one ear) showed that they had lower vocabulary scores, but it was not believed to be significant.

Like speech and language delays, educational problems were reported in many but not in all studies. Problems in school included a 22-35% rate of repeating at least one grade, and 12-41% receiving additional educational assistance, such as tutoring and remedial classes. Behavioral issues were also reported at an increased rate. such as perceived lack of attention in class.

The advantage of having two ears that hear rather than just one ear has been documented in many studies. People have a much easier time figuring out where a sound is coming from when two ears hear compared with only one ear. In the "cocktail party effect," people who have normal hearing in two ears have an easier time engaging in conversation in a room where other people talking, compared with people who have any hearing loss. In school, children commonly have to deal with significant background noise (others talking, shuffling papers and feet, building noise, etc.) so that any hearing loss may affect their ability to hear and understand what a teacher is saying.

The studies I reviewed suggested that several risk factors may put children with unilateral hearing loss at increased risk of speech-language or educational problems. If the hearing loss begins as an infant or toddler, speech and language delay may occur and affect subsequent learning in school. Medical problems that occurred at birth or shortly after birth may result in global developmental or cognitive delay that can affect educational progress. Children with severe to profound unilateral hearing loss have little if any usable hearing in the impaired ear, and have considerable problems with background noise at school.

A couple of studies have looked at using hearing aids or FM systems for children with unilateral hearing loss. FM systems help children hear and understand words better than hearing aids in the setting of background noise, but they can only be used indoors. Hearing aids may help children with unilateral hearing loss when they are not in school or at home, but not all children benefit from using them.

School-aged children with unilateral hearing loss appear to have increased rates of grade failures, need for additional educational assistance, and perceived behavioral issues in the classroom. Speech and language delays may occur in some children with unilateral hearing loss, and it is unclear if children "catch up" as they grow older. Further research into this area is necessary to clarify these issues and to determine whether interventions may prevent potential problems.

Dr. Judith Lieu graduated from UC Davis and Washington University School of Medicine. She is pediatric otolaryngologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital and an Assistant Professor at Washington University School of Medicine. She is currently doing a study to investigate the factors that put children with unilateral hearing loss at risk for poor school performance. She and her husband have two young children.

Learn how to double the number of issues in your subscription at no additional cost at our redesigned website--www.pedsforparents.com

COPYRIGHT 2004 Pediatrics for Parents, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group

Return to Hearing loss
Home Contact Resources Exchange Links ebay