A Prospective Study of Auditory Functions in Patients Undergoing Dialysis

Abstract

Introduction: Hearing loss, as a side effect of chronic renal failure (CRF), is ignored though the incidence of sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) among CRF patients is considerably higher than in general population. The present study was conducted in this context as an attempt (i) To find out the occurrence of SNHL viz-a-viz severity of hearing impairment in CRF patients undergoing hemodialysis. (ii) To assess HL at different frequencies in CRF patients. (iii) To study correlation between severity of HL and demographic features. (iv) To assess the factors affecting HL in CRF patients.

Materials and Methods: 190 patients (age 15-70 years) who underwent hemodialysis were subjected to audiological evaluation with pure tone audiometry and impedance audiometry.

Results & Conclusion: Hearing loss has been studied in 190 CRF patients with prevalence of 61.5%. High frequency hearing loss (HL) was detected in CRF patients and only few patients had SNHL at lower frequencies. Duration of disease in CRF patients was not related to HL and there was no significant correlation between SNHL and gender, however, there was a positive correlation of SNHL with (i) stage of disease (p = 0.016), and (ii) age of patient (p = 0.003). Further, raised blood urea and serum creatinine levels couldn’t  predict occurrence of SNHL. Furthermore, there was no significant correlation between magnitude of HL and duration of hemodialysis and, therefore, dialysis treatment by itself doesn’t alter hearing.  SNHL is common among CRF patients undergoing hemodialysis hence auditory screening using pure tone audiometry should be done routinely.