Asymmetric hearing loss is common and benign in patients aged 95 years and older.

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Asymmetric hearing loss is common and benign in patients aged 95 years and older.

Laryngoscope. 2016 Apr 4;

Authors: Leskowitz MJ, Caruana FF, Siedlecki B, Qian ZJ, Spitzer JB, Lalwani AK

Abstract
OBJECTIVES/HYPOTHESIS: The objective of our study was to investigate age-specific auditory function in the patient population aged 95 years and older.
STUDY DESIGN: Retrospective chart review at a tertiary medical center.
METHODS: Medical records of 51 patients older than 95 years (82% female, 18% male) who underwent audiologic testing were reviewed. The following information was collected: age at time of most recent audiogram and prior audiograms; results of pure tone, immittance, and speech audiometry; and findings on radiologic imaging.
RESULTS: None of the subjects had hearing in the normal range. For the poorer hearing ear, average low-frequency, high-frequency, and overall pure tone averages (PTA) for the population were 67.9, 82.1, and 74.9 dB hearing level, respectively. Mean word recognition score (WRS) was 57.6% and deteriorated with increasing PTA (P = .0002). Asymmetry, defined by a 10-dB difference at two frequencies, was present in 39.2% of the sample, and WRS asymmetry, defined as a difference of 12% in WRS between ears, was present in 33.0% of the sample. Retrocochlear evaluation did not identify pathology in any of the cases tested. In the poorer hearing ear, average decline in PTA per year was 2.9 dB.
CONCLUSIONS: In individuals >95 years of age, hearing loss was universal, moderately severe to profound in magnitude, and associated with substantial loss of speech recognition. Hearing loss progresses at a rate greater than for younger cohorts. In this "oldest old" population, asymmetry of loss and WRS was common and is not indicative of retrocochlear pathology.
LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: 4 Laryngoscope, 2016.

PMID: 27040356 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

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