Cochlear function in chronic kidney disease and renal transplantation: a longitudinal study

Hearing loss on pure-tone and brainstem-evoked response audiometry is well documented in chronic kidney disease patients, but there are only scant data in renal allograft recipients. The aim of this study was to evaluate cochlear function on pure-tone and brainstem-evoked response audiometry among patients of chronic kidney disease to document changes after renal transplantation. The study included 20 healthy controls and 40 patients: 10 each at stage 3 and 4 and 20 with stage 5 chronic kidney disease. Patients with known causes for hearing loss were not included. Patients with stage 5 chronic kidney disease were reevaluated 1 year after renal transplantation. Compared with healthy controls, chronic kidney disease patients showed a highly significant bilateral sensorineural hearing loss at all frequencies of 0.25 to 8.0 kHz, which was more marked in higher frequencies. A highly significant delay in the latencies of waves I, III, and V and interpeak latencies of I to III and I to V was also noted on brainstem-evoked response audiometry. Compared with their pretransplant values, there was a significant improvement in the delay in absolute latencies of I, III, and V among renal allograft recipients. There was no correlation of audiometry findings with gender, degree of renal failure, and serum sodium. Hearing loss was seen in 70% of stage 3 and 4 chronic kidney disease and 60% in stage 5. The intensity of hearing loss was variable. In conclusion, chronic kidney disease patients shows definitive audiologic dysfunction with some improvement in hearing and wave latencies after successful renal transplantation.