Post meningitis profound hearing loss: MRI as a predictor tool for urgent cochlear implant

Abstract

Bacterial meningitis is the most common cause of acquired sensorineural hearing loss in children, once it could quickly trigger ossification of cochlea, known as labyrinthitis ossificans. Medical team should be aware of such potential threaten and monitor hearing function of these patients. On suspicion of hearing loss, it is urgent to proceed audiological and radiological evaluation before complete cochlear ossification, since it evolves to profound hearing loss and reduces successful cochlear implant insertion. Although CT scan detect cochlear ossification, it sometimes too late. More recently, MRI could detect early intracochlear labyrinthitis ossificans stages, allowing cochlear implant surgery in the right moment. *Correspondence to: Miura MS, Department of Medical Surgery of Universidade Federal de Ciências da Saúde de Porto Alegre and Division of Pediatric Otorhinolaryngology at Hospital da Criança Santo Antônio, Programa de PósGraduação em Ciências Médicas-Faculdade de Medicina da Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil, E-mail: mmiura.voy@terra.com.br Received: June 29, 2018 Accepted: July 09, 2018; Published: July 12, 2018 Introduction Bacterial meningitis (BM) is the most common cause of acquired sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) in children [1,2-9,10-12]. 5-7% of patients will develop hearing loss, since meningitis induces to labyrinthitis ossificans (LO) [7]. This process can be quick, and the medical team should monitor hearing function of these patients, as well as guide parents / caregivers for any disorders related to speech, language, responses to environmental sounds, or behavior changes. On suspicion of hearing loss, it is urgent to proceed audiological and radiological evaluation.