HEARING LOSS IN HEMODIALYSIS PATIENTS

Inner ear cells are sensitive to some metabolic and hormonal disorders, but the relation between chronic renal failure (CRF), regular dialysis treatment (RDT) and sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) is still a debatable field. The object of this paper was to verify the presence of SNHL in patients submitted to hemodialysis with different duration due to CRF and in those submitted to conservative treatments compared to normal controls. Sixteen chronic renal failure patients, thirty CRF patients with different duration of hemodialysis (14 cases less than 5 years, 9 cases between 5 to 10 years and 7 cases more than 10 years) and sixteen controls were studied according to clinical exam, pure tone audiometry and immitanciometry. The hearing acuity in the CRF groups compared to the normal group showed impairment, mainly in 4 and 8 kHz. There was no statistically significant difference in hearing acuity between CRF patients on RDT and those with conservative management.