Long-term courses of hearing loss in young children

The purpose of this study was to clarify the long-term prognosis of young children with congenital or acquired hearing loss.

The subjects consisted of 9 young children (18 ears) in whom auditory training was performed in the Kochi Prefectural Center for Hearing Impaired Children, and the course of hearing could be observed until the age of at least 10 years.

The annual course of hearing was evaluated based on the results of play audiometry and pure-tone audiometry that facilitated the differentiation of hearing between the left and right ears. In the first examination, stable values were obtained after some tests and used as reference values. As the representative value at each age, the arithmetic mean of the pure-tone averages obtained by all hearing tests performed during the year was used.

The course of hearing was observed from 2 to 24 years of age, and the observation period was 6-18 years (mean 13.2 years). Hearing was aggravated in 13 ears, of which 8 (4 patients) showed marked and 5 (3 patients) showed slight aggravation. Hearing was unchanged in 5 ears (3 patients).

Hearing loss often progressed bilaterally. There were two progression patterns: rapid aggravation during early childhood, followed by gradual aggravation, and gradual aggravation over the entire course. The aggravation of hearing may be associated with the degree of impairment and vulnerability of the auditory organs.