Khurshid Anwar, Shehryar Khan, Sohail Khan.
Frequency of Type of Hearing Loss in patients Presenting to ENT Outpatient Clinics.
J Saidu Med Col Jan ;9(1):76-81.

Background: Hearing loss can be congenital or acquired. Congenital causes include syndromic and non-syndromic. Acquired+/- causes include middle ear disease, trauma, ototoxic drugs, acoustic & noise trauma and iatrogenic. Hearing loss may also be classified as conductive, sensorineural and mixed. Objective: To determine the frequency of type of hearing loss in patients presenting to ENT outpatient clinics. Material & Methods: This study was conducted at the Departments of ENT at Hayatabad Medical Complex, Peshawar, Saidu Medical College, Swat and consultants' own private clinics during the period from January 1st, 2018 to June 30th, 2018. Patients were tested with pure tone audiometry. Hearing loss was categorized into; 1. Conductive hearing loss (Bone Conduction= Normal threshold and air-bone gap > 15 deci-bel), 2. Mixed hearing loss (bone conduction threshold >30 deci-bel and air-bone gap >15 deci-bel) and 3. Sensorineural hearing loss (air conduction and bone conduction thresholds >30 deci-bel and no air-bone gap). Results: A total of 407 patients with 240 males, 167 females were included. The age range was 5- 85 years. The commonest age group affected by hearing impairment was 5 to 10 years. The commonest type of hearing loss was conductive hearing loss and mixed hearing loss being the least common. Chronic suppurative otitis media was the commonest disease responsible for conductive and mixed hearing loss whereas presbyacusis was the commonest disorder responsible for sensorineural loss. Conclusions: Conductive hearing loss ( CHL) as determined by pure tone audiography (PTA), is the commonest type of hearing impairment in patients attending the ENT clinics. It affects the younger age groups. Chronic suppurative otitis media and otitis media with effusion are the commonest causes. Patients should be screened early with PTA and appropriate treatment instituted to prevent permanent hearing disability.

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