Posts Tagged ‘Acute Deafness’
Treatment of Acute Deafness
What can the patient do?
Not much more to see as quickly as possible in case of sudden drop in hearing (compare how you hear an alarm clock or phone in one ear and in the other).
ENT is a pressing need to be addressed without further delay (less than 24 hours if possible) to have the greatest chance of recovery.
Evolution
The evolution of acute deafness is unpredictable, ranging from complete recovery to a total absence of recovery.
Recovery is always better in the low frequencies (lower). Late recovery when there has been a long time since the end of treatment. Some may occur again (relapse), in which case they are called fluctuating deafness. Read the rest of this entry »
Acute Deafness: What Can The Doctor Do?
As soon as you think in the diagnosis of acute deafness, the patient must be addressed urgently. This includes the implementation of a treatment called cochlear support (intended to prevent injury to the cochlea progress), and performing a check:
- Complete blood count, including sugar and lipids (cholesterol, total lipids).
- Repetition of audiometric testing every 48 hours.
- Repetition of audiometric testing auditory evoked every 48 horas.Potenciales (a specific technique that detects how come the sound signals to the brain) if the loss is less than 60 dB (decibels).
- MRI brain with injection of gadolinium (a contrast), looking for an acoustic neuroma. Read the rest of this entry »
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). Read the rest of this entry »
Diseases that Cause Acute Deafness
What other disease could be?
There are a number of diseases that can cause sudden hearing loss, which is different from acute deafness.
Clinical examination and audiometric eliminates transmission deafness (deafness associated with middle ear disease such as ear serous) and earwax, which can cause sudden deafness if they move into the ear canal and the eardrum after playing for example, a shower or a swim in a pool. However, a plug of wax can mask an acute deafness.
Many diseases can cause acute deafness:
- Injury: bone fractures, head injuries, accidents and injuries by sharp sound (loud noise). Read the rest of this entry »