Progressive hearing loss in children and young adults: prevalence of audiological characteristics

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to describe the prevalence of audiological characteristics of a group of children and young adults with history of progressive sensorineural hearing loss. Thirty subjects were selected using as criteria: congenital or acquired sensorineural hearing loss of any degree or configuration that had lost at least 15dB in two or more frequencies in at least one ear. All cases with a history of conductive component were excluded when it could be related with the progression or fluctuation of the loss. The results suggest that there were significant differences between the hearing thresholds of the first and last audiograms, tending to be greater at the frequencies 1, 2, 3 and 4kHz. The progression was more frequent in patients with moderately severe and severe hearing losses. There was also a tendency for a bilateral progression. In those cases where the loss was asymmetric, the progression was greater in the ear with better thresholds. The pattern progressive and fluctuant-progressive were more frequent, and there was a tendency of the same pattern of variation in both ears.