Sensorineural Hearing Loss in Patients with Long-COVID-19: Objective and Behavioral Audiometric Findings

The symptoms of COVID-19 are primarily respiratory system disorders. Sensorineural hearing loss can be caused by COVID-19, as other symptoms in the nervous system. Hearing loss may also be the only symptom or complication of this disease or the symptoms of long COVID-19. The study aimed to assess he...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Infection and drug resistance 2023-01, Vol.16, p.1931-1939
Main Authors: Dorobisz, Karolina, Pazdro-Zastawny, Katarzyna, Misiak, Paula, Kruk-Krzemień, Anna, Zatoński, Tomasz
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Audiology
Audiometry
Auditory system
Brain stem
Coronaviruses
COVID-19
Disease transmission
Ears & hearing
Emergency medical care
Emissions
Hearing loss
Hearing protection
Infections
Inner ear
Long COVID
long covid-19
Nervous system
Original Research
Otoacoustic emissions
Patients
Respiratory system
sars-cov-2
Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2
Statistical analysis
Tinnitus
Viral infections
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Summary:The symptoms of COVID-19 are primarily respiratory system disorders. Sensorineural hearing loss can be caused by COVID-19, as other symptoms in the nervous system. Hearing loss may also be the only symptom or complication of this disease or the symptoms of long COVID-19. The study aimed to assess hearing in patients after COVID-19 infection. The study conducted ENT and full hearing assessment in COVID-19 infection. All patients underwent complete audiological diagnostics, including threshold tonal audiometry, tympanometry, otoacoustic emissions, and auditory brainstem evoked potentials (ABR) tests. The study group included 58 patients aged 23 to 75 years who were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection six months before inclusion in the present study and reported post-COVID-19 hearing impairment. There were statistically significant differences between the control and study groups. Sensorineural hearing loss was found in 65.5% of the tonal audiometry test. The stapes reflex was absent in almost 20% of post-COVID-19 patients. The analysis of ABRs demonstrated longer latencies of wave III, V, and time intervals I-III, I-V in post-COVID-19 patients. COVID-19 can damage the inner ear as well as the auditory pathway. Hearing loss may be the only symptom of COVID-19 or be a late complication of the disease due to postinfectious inflammation of the nerve tissue as a symptom of long COVID-19. Prolonged conduction of the auditory pathway shows the affinity of the virus to the nervous system as a symptom of long COVID. It is advisable to perform hearing diagnostics in patients after COVID-19 and provide them with specialist care.
ISSN:1178-6973
1178-6973
DOI:10.2147/IDR.S398126