A clinico-epidemiological study of hearing loss in adult patients presenting to a tertiary healthcare center in India

Background: The objectives of the study are: 1. To determine the profile of patients presenting with hearing loss. 2. To determine the causes of hearing loss in adult patients of various age groups. The cases for the study comprised of adult patients aged >/=20years, presenting to the ENT Out-patient Department with complaint of hearing loss. Detailed history thorough ENT examination including Examination of the ear, nose and throat with Bull’s eye lamp, Otoscopic/Otomicroscopic/Otoendoscopic examination with photo-documentation of the ear status when required, tuning fork tests, and a battery of audiological tests including pure-tone audiometry, impedance audiometry and Brain-stem Evoked Response audiometry (when required) were conducted and the reports of the same were enclosed with the Pro forma of the patients. Results and Discussion: Hearing loss is more common in old age and more male patients presented with hearing loss. The most common symptom seen with hearing loss was tinnitus which was commonly ringing type and this was commonly seen in older patients associated with sensori-neural hearing loss. The most common type of hearing loss was sensori-neural hearing loss seen more commonly in older patients and associated with tinnitus. The definitive diagnosis for patients with sensori-neural hearing loss was difficult to specify with the most common diagnosis being presbyacusis, followed by noise induced hearing loss. The second common diagnosis was Chronic Otitis Media(COM).