Long-term follow-up of children with hearing loss that is minimally progressive.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to describe changes in audiometric thresholds over time in children whose hearing loss demonstrated early mild progression.

Design: This was a retrospective follow-up study to examine long-term audiologic results in children with progressive loss.

Study sample: We examined audiologic data for 69 children, (diagnosed from 2003 to 2013), who had been previously categorised as having "minimal" progressive hearing loss.

Results: Children had a median of 10.0 (7.5, 12.1) years of follow-up and a median age of 12.5 (IQR: 11.0, 14.5) years; 92.8%; 64 of 69) of children continued to show progressive hearing loss (defined as a decrease of ≥10 dB at two or more adjacent frequencies between 0.5 and 4 kHz or a decrease in 15 dB at one frequency) in at least one ear since diagnosis. Further examination showed that 82.8% of ears (106 of 128) had deterioration in hearing. Of the 64 children, 29.7% (19/64) showed further deterioration since the first analysis.

Conclusion: More than 90% of children identified as having minimal progressive hearing loss continued to show deterioration in hearing. Ongoing audiological monitoring of children with hearing loss is indicated to ensure timely intervention and to better counsel families.