Causes of hearing loss in adults

Several conditions fit this description, the mode of transmission being X-linked, autosomal dominant or recessive. The hearing loss is usually progressive and can be conductive, sensory or neural. In addition, some of the progressive inherited hearing losses of childhood may not develop auditory difficulties until adult life, although they should have been diagnosed in childhood (see Volume 6). The degree of hearing loss in any individual condition is often variable and there is a dearth of audiometric data in most of these.