Diagnosis of Acute Deafness
How does the doctor diagnosed acute deafness?
The most important sign is the sudden loss of hearing, most often on one side. This deafness is accompanied, at times, ringing (tinnitus) in the ear (which can sometimes expose acute deafness).
- The first phase of the clinical examination is the otoscopy. Clinical examination is essential to investigate whether there is an injury that may be responsible for a sudden drop in hearing, earwax, a serous otitis, tubal catarrh or a perforated eardrum (in most patients the eardrum is normal ).
- Then you should confirm that it is certainly a perception deafness (sensorineural) and not transmitted. This is done first by a hearing acuity test (using an instrument called a pitch) supplemented later with tympanometric examination (which analyzes the state of the tympanic membrane).
- The ENT specialist will check audiometric confirming the diagnosis of acute deafness. It consists of two tests: a complete audiometric examination, checking the perception of sound at different frequencies, and a vocal audiometric examination, to check the understanding of a standard word list.
- During the time of treatment in the hospital, you should order an MRI of the affected ear to rule out a tumor (neurinoma) of the main nerve connecting the ear to the brain acoustic. In fact, it can detect the presence of about 5% of neurinomas by the onset of sudden deafness.