Traumatic brain injuries increase the risk of hearing loss
A Taiwanese study investigated incidences of hearing loss among patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) to evaluate whether they had a higher risk of hearing loss than the general population.
The findings were based on data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database from 2000 to 2010 among more than 1.6 million patients.
The study found that traumatic brain injuries (TBI) significantly increased the risk of hearing loss. In fact, patients with brain injury had a 2.125 times higher risk of developing hearing loss than individuals without brain injury.
Traffic injuries carry the highest risk
Patients with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) due to traffic injury had the highest associated risk of hearing loss compared with the risk of non-TBI traffic injury patients, followed by patients with crushing /cutting/ piercing injuries and falls.
More than 60% of the injuries that caused hearing loss in the TBI group were a result of traffic injuries.
More males than females
In the study, males had a higher risk of hearing loss than females. The highest percentage of patients had sensorineural hearing loss, followed by conductive hearing loss and mixed hearing loss.
The study “Increased Long-Term Risk of Hearing Loss in Patients With Traumatic Brain Injury: A Nationwide Population-Based Study” was published in The Laryngoscope in 2017.
Source: The Laryngoscope